The Maryland Department of Health is an agency of the

government of Maryland The government of Maryland is conducted according to the Maryland Constitution. The United States is a federation; consequently, the government of Maryland, like the other 49 state governments, has exclusive authority over matters that lie entire ...

responsible for public health issues. The Department is headed by a Secretary who is a member of the Executive Council/Cabinet of the

Governor of Maryland The Governor of the State of Maryland is the head of government of Maryland, and is the commander-in-chief of the state's National Guard units. The Governor is the highest-ranking official in the state and has a broad range of appointive powers ...

. Currently the secretary is Laura Herrera Scott. Previous secretaries have included Dennis R. Schrader,

Robert R. Neall Robert R. Neall (born June 26, 1948) is an American politician and United States Republican Party, Republican in Maryland who has served as state health secretary, state senator, state delegate and Anne Arundel County, Maryland#County Executives, ...

Joshua Sharfstein Joshua M. Sharfstein (born 1969) is a physician and the current Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He was Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health from 2011 to ...

, and

Georges C. Benjamin Georges C. Benjamin (born September 28, 1952) is an American public health official who has served as Executive Director of the American Public Health Association since 2002, and previously as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and M ...

History

The Department was formed in 1969 as the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and was known by this name until June 30, 2017. Although the department itself was formed in 1969, some of its origins go back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In January 2022, the department disclosed a

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cyberattack A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricted ...

discovered in the previous month causing disruption in healthcare systems already stressed by the COVID-19 surge.

References

External links

*
Department of Health
Maryland Manual On-Line

Health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

State departments of health of the United States Medical and health organizations based in Maryland 1969 establishments in Maryland {{health-stub