At the last Douglas County Board Meeting, Dr. Adi Pour, Director of the Douglas County Health Department, discussed the State of Public Health.
Dr. Pour talked about the diseases that were reported from all the labs in Douglas County last year.
She said in 2013, there were six diseases related to outbreaks that made 450 people ill in Douglas County.
Dr. Pour said nine were Norovirus outbreaks.
"We had salmonella, three outbreaks with 50 people ill. We had influenza all the time. When we have influenza outbreaks, specifically in nursing homes, we need to go in there and quickly treat the individual because those are senior citizens that have underlying illnesses and therefore are more affected by this. We had cryptosporiadiosis and scabies outbreaks in childcare centers.”
Dr. Pour said last year, Douglas County was part of a national outbreak of cyclosporiasis, which was eventually tracked back to a chain of restaurants that got their fresh salad mixes from the same distributor.
Dr. Pour said it’s important to find these outbreaks quickly and inform the public so people know what to look for and can help prevent the spread of these diseases.