Although Nevada’s public health officials face some major challenges, the state has some major public health strengths. In fact, Nevada’s residents have a relatively low rate of obesity, a high rate of physical activity, and a relatively low rate of infectious diseases.
The primary agency that employs public health officials in Nevada is the state’s Division of Public and Behavioral Health (DPBH). These professionals are compensated with good salaries as they work to improve on the state’s public health strengths by implementing health promotion programs, monitoring the incidence of diseases, and working with legislators to implement policies that benefit the health of Nevada’s residents.
These efforts have been successful in reducing the rate of cardiovascular disease in Nevada. The Nevada Public Health Foundation reported that the incidence of this disease dropped by 25% over the ten-year period ending in 2012.
Epidemiologists with the DPBH track a variety of diseases and provide weekly updates on the number of West Nile virus cases during its active season. While the virus has been reported in all counties in Nevada, six of the seven human cases that occurred in 2013 were in Clark County. These professionals have also been aggressively tracking the incidence of measles and evaluated 11 Nevada residents for the disease in early 2015.
Improvements to the state of public health in Nevada are the results of the combined effort of state and local health officials, non-governmental agencies, academic researchers, and legislators.
Salaries Among Nevada’s Public Health Professionals
The Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation provides 2015 salary data for a number of public health professionals. Although these salaries can vary substantially, highly educated public health professionals such as those with a Master of Public Health are likely to earn on the higher end of the salary ranges provided here.
The salaries of statisticians who worked for the state of Nevada in 2014 are publicly available. The highest salary for a Statistician 2 was $55,108, while the average salary among entry-level professionals was $39,760. The Chief Biostatistician for the state of Nevada earned $96,010 that year.
US Department of Labor Data on Public Health Salaries in Nevada
For comparison, the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a breakdown of the salaries among public health professionals who worked in Nevada in 2014.
