Recent Blog Posts

Many people spend time outdoors in the winter working, traveling, or enjoying winter sports. Outdoor activities can expose you to several safety hazards, but you can take these steps to prepare for them… Visit the CDC to learn more on preventing carbon monoxide poisoning, staying safe in power outages and extreme weather and staying healthy during the winter months: http://www.cdc.gov/Features/WinterWeather/index.html

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With the recent frigid temperatures and high winds there is a particular health risk that we must address: Hypothermia. Hypothermia can occur when you least expect it if you are not properly prepared for the below freezing temperatures, whether while shoveling snow for an extended period of time, in a stuck car during a storm, or a host of other ways. It’s not something to be taken lightly. Pay attention to hypothermia symptoms. Hypothermia ...

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February can be a bleak month, filled with gray, dreary days and chilly, blustery nights. While the chill in the air can’t be blamed for bugs going around the office or school, the cold itself can irritate the body, causing minor ailments.   Each winter season, doctors here at AFC/ find more and more patients complaining of some common winter issues, in addition to colds and flu. Topping the list of patient complaints are sore ...

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For most kids, Halloween is a time for costumes, parties, trick or treating, and candy eating. Halloween candy is exciting for every child, but facing restrictions of a gluten-free diet while Trick-or-Treating can be challenging and disappointing for children. And for those with food allergies, it can be just plain old scary, so here is allergy-safe Halloween Trick or Treating explained. I suggest discussing the experience ahead of time to set expectations to keep the ...

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Dr. Brown discusses what to be on the look out for this summer. Safety tips are discussed when it comes to fireworks, swimming, sun exposure, and more. Dr. Brown is the medical director of Urgent Care West Hartford and offers advice from experience on these cases we have seen from patients that walk in with medical injuries or illness that occur frequently during the summer.

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The medical portion of the immigration process often takes multiple visits to a variety of different sites. At AFC Urgent Care West Hartford, we offer streamlined immigration physicals, designed to get you through the medical exam portion of the process without sending you all over. Our step by step immigration/green card physical allows those applying for a green card to utilize our centers for the entire healthcare process, thereby alleviating as much stress as ...

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What a wonderful time of year! The leaves are changing, the holidays are about to start, and of course, it’s almost Flu Season! Yay! On a more sobering note, last year was one of the deadliest of flu seasons we have seen in a long time. Reportedly, more than 80,000 people died last year from the flu alone. The CDC has issues a statement that everyone over the age of 6-months needs to ...

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Did you know that there is actually more than one flu vaccine? Make sure you are in the know this Flu season and we at AFC West Hartford are here to help! What is the Quadrivalent Flu Vaccines? The standard flu vaccine (and only one available until 2012) is the Trivalent Influenza Vaccine. This vaccine protects against three (3) different strains of Flu: Two A Strains (H1N1 and H3N2) and one (1) B Strain. The ...

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Remember the cyanide scare decades ago when seven Chicago residents died after ingesting Tylenol laced with poison? Though the incident happened weeks before Halloween, it was proof that even sealed substances can be tampered with. Chicago residents, and the rest of the country, were in a panic – some neighborhoods prohibited edible treats from being passed out, while another neighborhood banned trick-or-treating altogether. The fervor has only escalated. Parents have become ever more vigilant as the ...

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2 years ago the guidelines on sports related concussions and head trauma tightened up, spurred on by the news making lawsuits brought by some prominent football players families, most notably but not solely, the death of Ohio State football player Kosta Karageorge, who suffered from multiple concussions and then tragically took his own life. As we were learning, their lives had been severely impacted by concussions, due to the effects of traumatic brain injury throughout ...

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