PORT TOWNSEND — Public Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry said on Friday that she is hopeful that Clallam and Jefferson counties will move out of flu season in the next few weeks.
“We are finally starting to see influenza downtrending in our community,” Berry said. “Really, just in the last week or so. We’re hopeful about that. We still have a lot of influenza activity, but it’s at least moving in the right direction.”
In her monthly update to the Board of Jefferson County Commissioners on March 3, Berry reported that influenza rates were high.
“Nationally, it’s been a rough flu season,” she said. “We’ve already seen 21,000 deaths due to influenza, 98 of which were children, which I think is a painful reminder that influenza can be quite severe. Including for otherwise healthy kids, especially those who are under 5.”
It’s not too late in the season to be vaccinated, Berry said.
There is a treatment for high-risk individuals, Berry said.
“Those who are very young, those who have underlying conditions, and those who are over 65,” she clarified. “That’s Oseltamivir, or the brand name Tamiflu. You have to get it soon, though. You have to get it within two days of your illness starting.”
Rates of infection for COVID-19 have been low, Berry said.
“We are still seeing elevated RSV activity,” she said. “Though nothing as severe as we’re seeing on the influenza front. Remember, RSV is severe for those who are very elderly and very young and those who are immunosuppressed.”
There is a good vaccine available for infants and those who are older than 70, or those older than 65 who have underlying conditions, Berry said.
Neither counties have active outbreaks of avian flu in cattle or poultry, Berry said.
“We do still see sporadic wild bird cases of avian flu,” Berry said. “We have to assume that it’s in the wild bird population.”
There have been no known cases of the measles in Clallam or Jefferson counties, Berry said.
“We continue to follow the situation in Texas,” she said. “That outbreak is continuing to spread. I believe they’re are up to 259 cases so far. That one really demonstrates how hard it is to contain these outbreaks once they start.”
King County did have a confirmed measles case in an infant, she added.
“Thankfully in the King County case, we haven’t seen subsequent cases of measles,” Berry said. “We don’t think we’re on track for an outbreak in King County.”
For those born before 1957, Berry said it is assumed they have had measles and are immune. Those born before 1968 likely got an old and less-effective version of a measles vaccination. Berry recommends those in that category to get a booster.
The health department encourages individuals to check their vaccination records and get a vaccination if they haven’t in order to prevent the possibility of an outbreak. Those who don’t know if they’ve had the vaccination can have their blood tested or pursue a second measles vaccination, which won’t harm them, Berry said.
Federal, international developments
National news outlets have reported that the Trump administration rescinded its nomination for former Florida congressman Dr. David Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The withdrawal was announced Sunday morning, less than an hour before a hearing on his nomination, according to The Associated Press.
Weldon has been known to spread disinformation, Berry said.
“Unfortunately our (Department of Health and Human Services) secretary (Robert Kennedy Jr.) on the federal level continues to spread misinformation, and that is a challenge,” Berry said. “We do what we can to counter it when we hear of things that he said in public that aren’t true.”
Kennedy has been encouraging people to take Vitamin A to combat measles,” Berry said. That is not a recommended treatment, she added.
“There are countries in the world that don’t have access to the kind of vaccines that we do where measles spreads more and that are also facing extreme poverty, drought, and shortages of food and water,” Berry said. “In those places, many children have a severe vitamin A deficiency, which makes them have a more severe outcome if they get measles as well. Of course, the best thing to protect those kids would be to make sure they get adequate food and their measles vaccine.”
Funding for public health is under threat at federal and state levels, Berry said.
“Unfortunately, we’re looking at major budget cuts to public health at the state level too,” Berry said. “Eventually, if we do enough cutting of the workforce and the funding for these programs, we won’t be able to deliver the same kinds of services as far as making sure that vaccines are available to anyone who wants them, regardless of their ability to pay, which is very important to us.”
The state is looking at making cuts to the WIC program and SNAP benefits, things that are critical to making the poorest in the population healthy, Berry said.
The Environmental Protection Agency just changed the cutoff for how much sewage is OK to spill in the water that people drink, Berry said.
“That’s not going to be good for the public’s health,” Berry said. “There was no need for that.”
Berry expressed concern over cuts to international aid through USAID.
“It’s very worrying, beyond just the basic humanitarian costs of it,” Berry said. “One of the things we learned during COVID is that a virus that spreads and mutates in another country doesn’t stay in that country.”
Funding cuts to pay for multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis is concerning, Berry added.
“The multi-drug-resistant TB program, those are folks whose tuberculosis has become resistant to nearly all the drugs we have that treat tuberculosis,” she said. “The United States, with good forethought, agreed to treat those folks, so that the multi-drug-resistant fatal organism doesn’t make it here.
“Cutting that funding means all those people, their drugs just stopped, they still have TB, and that TB has now been exposed to the last remaining antibiotics we have that treat TB. Suddenly stopping that will breed new resistant strains of tuberculosis. It’s a matter of time before that gets here. It’s very short-sighted.”
Berry also shared a humanitarian data point.
“As of three weeks ago, 300 children in sub-Saharan Africa had been born with HIV that would not have otherwise,” she said. “We used to fund treating of their moms during pregnancy, which can make that child not be born with HIV and have a full life where they don’t have to be on treatment.”
Mortality rate for children born in sub-Saharan Africa with HIV is incredibly high, Berry said.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
