The New Mexico Department of Health is proud to join the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in celebrating Nov. 14 - 20 as “Get Smart About Antibiotics Week”, an important campaign to increase awareness about the benefits and risks of antibiotics.

While deaths due to infections caused by bacteria have decreased dramatically since antibiotics became available in the 1940s, widespread use of antibiotics has led to bacteria that are resistant to antibiotic treatment. Antibiotic resistance is now one of the most pressing public health threats of modern times.

Although resistance to antibiotics can occur spontaneously in nature, the development of widespread antibiotic...

Working with the Gallup Pantry, the Rotarians work to distribute “baskets of brotherhood” to area families. Photo Credit: Ryan Hudgeons

ALBUQUERQUE — Immigrant Latino community members and leaders came together with “Juntos: Our Air Our Water” to turn in over 2,400 signed petitions to Gov. Susana Martinez and the Environmental Department in Santa Fe, demanding our state transition to clean, renewable energy Nov. 21.

The petition gathering started early September of this year after Juntos had conducted a survey, from October 2015 through February 2016, which demonstrated that 89 percent of the surveyed families — mostly from the Latino immigrant community —  expressed that their number one concern was the air quality and air pollution levels found in their communities.

The survey findings were then...