Flu Shots Available Sept. 7 at Health Department

September 2, 2010, Inez, Kentucky –   The Martin County Health Department will begin offering flu shots on Wednesday September 7 at 8 a.m., at the Martin County Health Department Clinic at 136 Rockcastle Road, Inez.  No appointment is necessary.  Flu shots cost $15. Medicaid, Medicare B, Humana (KY state employee only), UMWA Caremark, cash and check are accepted.


Michael Shoemaker
Director of Administrative Services
Martin County Health Department
http://www.martincountyhealth.org

Local Health Dept. official says 'Contagion' is merely fiction;

Contagion is opening in Theaters nationwide on September 9, 2011. With a stellar cast and an accomplished producer/director, the film will certainly be a magnet for a large audience; especially those who have coveted the seemingly no-stop deluge of catastrophic destruction films that have appeared over the past few years. While Hollywood has destroyed mankind with earthquakes, asteroids, floods and raging fire storms, the disease venue has been ignored like an unwanted step child.

Hollywood was due to release this final category of doomsday drama. What Hollywood selected as the cause of our viral Armageddon was a virus that is less hypothetical or farfetched. H5N1, more commonly referred to as the Bird Flu was their agent of choice for the near eclipse of humanity. I have reservations that the producer had any idea that a new strain of bird flu was incubating in Asia while he was deciding his agent of mass destruction.

Bird flu is known for taking previous bows on the stage of infectious disease threats, and had actually been a serious contender for the academy award of nasty viruses throughout most of the non-western world in previous years. It had been serious enough for former President George W. Bush to launch a major campaign to deal the virus as a global threat. So yes, it was a good choice of potential disease hobgoblins to take center stage in the film Contagion.

From the viewpoint of public health, and the comments of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), the film is fiction, but not necessarily unrealistic. It is credible that one day a mutated virus will cause a global threat. Deadly viruses have been around as long as humanity was on earth. H1N1 could have gone that route, but like a B class horror film it simply lacked the punch to outwit our scientific critics. Bird Flu is a more challenging adversary.

So should we be worried? Do we watch the film and order hazmat suits and lock ourselves away in our cold cellars?

Probably the best thing is to watch the film and learn from it how viruses spread and how best to protect yourself. Viruses hate hot soapy water; so wash your hands as often as possible.

Viruses also need a food supply. If the bad guy shows up in town, don’t market yourself like a fast food sandwich. Stay away from crowds, and do your best to stay away from people who you know are sick. This is all commonsense stuff folks. No matter what type of virus pops up onto the big screen of our daily lives, the CDC and global scientists will find a vaccine and medicines to help treat the symptoms.

Our role in the film is to keep calm, go about our daily business, and most of all keep smart. If you deliberately put yourself in front of a bus, it will run you over.

If you want to know more about the Bird Flu, give us a call at the Lawrence County Health Department at 606-638-4389. We’ll be sure you get front row seat on how to protect yourself from the flu and stay productive and happy.

Ron Enders works for The Lawrence Co. Health Dept.

From the KPA News Content Service

Frankfort - Travelers on Kentucky’s highways will now be reminded of healthy snack choices they can make at the state’s rest areas and welcome centers. The Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet Wednesday announced the “Kentucky Healthier Highways Partnership.”

The initiative is a collaborative effort of the Office for the Blind, the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, the Transportation Cabinet, the Kentucky Alliance of YMCA’s and the Humana Foundation aiming to improve the food choices of those traveling on Kentucky’s roads.

“Kentucky is the first state in the nation to promote healthier options at state-operated vending sites,” Education and Workforce Development Cabinet Secretary Joseph U. Meyer said in a press release. “We hope to serve as a model to the rest of the country.”

As its first effort, Healthier Highways is placing the YMCA’s “Food Fight” posters in every vending site at 23 rest areas and welcome centers across the Commonwealth. These posters highlight healthy food choices at the moment when people are about to make a purchase decision. The messaging on the posters will change seasonally.

Research has shown that these reminders are the best way to help people make decisions that support a healthy lifestyle without restricting their options. Healthier choice snacks currently make up 25 percent of the offerings in vending machines operated by the OFB’s Blind Vendors Program.

The Blind Vendors program, operated through OFB’s Kentucky Business Enterprises, is one of the leading vending and food service programs in the United States operated by people who are blind. The program trains and certifies individuals as self-employed operators of snack bars, cafeterias and automated vending machines in public and private facilities across Kentucky. The program currently serves 54 vendors.

Kentucky’s rest areas and welcome centers are operated through a state agency partnership among the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, the Transportation Cabinet and the Blind Vendors program.

This group was approached by the Kentucky Alliance of YMCA’s to seek out innovative ways to work together to fight the epidemic of obesity, particularly childhood obesity, in Kentucky.

Kentucky has the seventh highest rate of obesity in the country and the fourth highest rate of childhood obesity. According to the Kentucky Alliance of YMCAs, this costs Kentucky more than a billion dollars in health care expenditures each year, which does not count lost productivity or personal costs to those affected by diabetes, heart problems or high blood pressure.

“Reversing this trend is going to require changes to the environment to facilitate healthier living,” Ben Reno-Weber, executive director of the Kentucky YMCA Youth Association, said. “It is going to require new ways of thinking about how people make health choices. And it is going to require changes in people's attitudes about food and exercise.”

Based on traffic count, the Transportation Cabinet estimates that there are about 30 million travelers annually that enter the rest areas and welcome centers.

“This initiative provides a great opportunity to get a positive message out to literally millions of people about the benefits of making healthy choices,” Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet Secretary Marcheta Sparrow said.

This is the first step of the Healthier Highways campaign, underwritten by the Humana Foundation. As the partnership awaits new guidance from the Food and Drug Administration, it looks to take further steps to promote healthy living across the state. More information on healthy food choices is available at yfoodfight.com.