Health Board discusses COVID-19, sanitarian position

The Hill County Health Board met Wednesday and discussed rising COVID-19 cases and some important openings at the Hill County Public Health Department.

Hill County Public Health Director Kim Berg was not able to be at Wednesday’s meeting nor was Board Chair Mark Peterson, so Vice Chair Erica McKeon-Hanson read an update on the pandemic from Berg.

McKeon-Hanson said, reading from Berg’s update, much like the rest of the state, Hill County is seeing an increase in cases of COVID-19 and most of these are being identified through people reporting the results of at-home tests, which the department is thankful for.

She said the department still has $70,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funds to be used for COVID-19 mitigation.

As for vaccination, she said, 56 percent of the county’s eligible population, which now includes people from 6 months to 5 years old, is fully vaccinated, and that number appears to have plateaued.

The board also discussed a serious vacancy that has afflicted the department for some time now, a sanitarian.

Clay Vincent used to be the department’s sanitarian, but since his retirement no one has risen to fill the position and he agreed to come back as a part-time sanitarian.

McKeon-Hanson thanked him for doing that and said it’s important to the community to find someone who can fill that role.

Vincent said the position requires a four-year degree in a biological or chemical science and must include the study of microbiology. He said the job requires one year of training and potential sanitarians need to pass a national test to be certified.

McKeon-Hanson said the department is also looking for a part-time immunization nurse.

Vincent also provided an update on his recent activities, including his inspections at the fair, inspections that didn’t go as well as he hoped.

He said most of the places at the fair did just fine, but this year’s carnival had some serious issues that left him very disappointed.

He said there was food that wasn’t being stored at the proper temperatures some food was left out improperly, and some had to be thrown away.

“It was a problem for several days,” he said.

Vincent also said there was an issue getting carnival workers to understand what to do since so many of them did not understand English, which led to a host of problems in and of itself.

He also said the department has been dealing with a tremendous amount of dog bites and he reminded people to control their animals and keep them up to date on their vaccinations.

Another reminder he gave was that people who go swimming in Beaver Creek Park should be sure to swallow as little of the water as possible to reduce the chances of catching something unpleasant.

He said they recently had a case where someone caught campylobacter and E. coli at the same time, and added that they did not have a good time, so people should be careful about contaminated water and contaminated food.

Hill County Public Health WIC Coordinator Nicole Hungerford said WIC is doing very well in Hill County overall.

Hungerford said they are still doing about half of their appointments remotely and she hopes some of the flexibility they’ve adopted during the pandemic will stick around after it’s over.

She also provided an update on the availability of baby formula in the area.

She said recent efforts to fly formulas into the U.S. from other countries have made it easier to get people what they need, but some formulas are still going to be hard to find.

Hungerford said WIC is helping provide alternative formulas to people who can’t find the one they would normally use, but warned that it will be a while before things are completely back to normal on the formula front.

The major cause of the shortage was due to contamination at a major formula plant owned by primary U.S. formula producer Abbott and U.S. restrictions on importing formula and the way nutritional programs for low-income families were set up.

Since the start of the crisis the Food and Drug Administration has eased regulations on importing baby formula and President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to increase production.

The Abbot plant, which re-opened then had to close again in June due to flooding caused by severe storms, is again producing formula.

The board also discussed the recent delivery of a vaccine refrigerator, but it arrived broken and they will need to wait for a whole new one, a development over which everyone at the meeting expressed their frustration.

During the meeting McKeon-Hanson also announced a job change, saying she is now working with Montana State University in Bozeman as a Rural Community Research Associate with two National Institutes of Health Centers under MSU.

She said this work can be done remotely, and she has every intention of staying on the board.