Transcript truth is stranger than fiction Monkeypox Quarantine

Harris County Public Health & Environmental Services
(HCPHES)
Tales from Harris County…
truth is stranger than fiction
Monkeypox
Quarantine
As the local health authority,
I have reasonable cause to
believe that the described
property is or may be
infected or contaminated
with a communicable
disease.
Specifically, the premises
received African rodents
and prairie dogs capable of
transmitting monkeypox to
humans.
July – August 2003
Top 2 photos from pet store website; bottom 2 photos from Wikipedia
BioWatch
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Officials Following Up on Bacteria Detection
City and county health officials are
following up on the detection by air
sensors of low levels of parts of the
bacterium that causes tularemia, a
treatable illness occasionally found in
humans but more common in rabbits
and rodents.
Health officials said that though the
bacteria is found naturally in the
environment, they are taking
precautionary measures to determine
if there have been any human cases of
tularemia, commonly known as rabbit
fever, in the area.
October-November 2003
Crosby Natural Gas Exploration Well Fire
HEALTH ADVISORY 1: Particles
in the air: limestone, quartz & clay
HEALTH ADVISORY 2: Don’t turn on your water because you might blow up
July-September 2005
Hurricane Katrina Astrodome/Reliant Park Mega-Shelter
August -September 2005
Teenager bitten by bat and dies from rabies
May 2006
Hurricane Ike
September- October 2008
AP photos by David J. Phillip of Clear Creek area (Harris County) and Chase Tower (Houston)
H1N1 Pandemic Influenza
2009-2010
The HCPHES Budget Experience
The direct effect of declining local,
state and federal funding has been a
workforce reduction of over
260 positions (approximately 33%)
since 2009.
The National Budget Experience
NACCHO Local Health Department Job Losses and Program Cuts July 2011
Funding decreases across the nation’s
public health system result not only in
weakened or eliminated routine public
health programs, but also in markedly
eroded public health emergency
preparedness and response capabilities.
Harris County
HCPHES
Public Health & Environmental Services
Herminia Palacio, MD, MPH
Executive Director
[email protected]
713.439.6016
www.hcphes.org