Yakima Public Health

Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board

This editorial appears in the June 22, 2011, Yakima Herald-Republic.

Typhoid fever caused by salmonella pushed the region to act 100 years ago when the city and county joined forces to set up the Yakima Health District. In 1997, the health district again confronted a salmonella crisis after tracing 90 cases of food poisoning to bacteria found in homemade cheese produced with unpasteurized milk.

A century ago, the health district made history by being the first of its kind in the country. In the intervening years, the district has dealt with all ranges of diseases — from nationwide concerns like flu, measles and West Nile virus to the localized outbreak of meningococcus, a disease that caused six deaths in the county in 1989. In each case, the district has constructed appropriate lines of attack.

In 1911, the issue was salmonella flourishing in unsanitary privies and cesspools; the district targeted sanitation issues and for good reason. Typhoid fever had claimed 74 lives over the previous three years, five times the national average.

In response to the 1997 salmonella outbreak, food scientists at Washington State University developed a recipe that used buttermilk to make cheese, and the district worked with WSU Cooperative Extension, the state and with industry groups to inform the public about consuming raw milk products.

The 1989 meningococcus outbreak prompted the district to mobilize a massive immunization campaign that saw more than 11,000 people vaccinated against the meningococcus bacteria in five weeks.

On top of those high-profile efforts, the health district oversees day-to-day duties like combatting HIV and tuberculosis, inspecting restaurants and swimming pools, regulating solid and hazardous waste, monitoring public water systems, investigating animal-spread disease, and performing screening for breast and cervical cancer.

It has done so amid funding challenges and in a county with high poverty rates, a large population of residents for whom access to health providers can be difficult, a high percentage of workers in high-risk jobs and a number of people living in crowded conditions. This finds the district acting proactively. It annually monitors a number of health-related factors using national recognized rankings developed by the University of Wisconsin. These include:

• Health behaviors, such as diet, exercise, alcohol and tobacco use and unsafe sex;
• Access to and quality of clinical care;
• Social economic factors, among them education, employment, income, social support and community safety;
• Physical environment, including environmental quality.

In 2010, the county ranked 30th out of 39 counties in this state in health outcomes and 34th in health factors, with social and economic factors being the biggest drag on Yakima County’s ranking.

The district has put these numbers to use; in recent years, it has targeted the county’s high obesity rate. Even during its June 18 century celebration, the district saw a teachable moment, offering digital thermometers and information on healthy living.

Many factors work against Yakima County’s public health in 2011, just as they did in 1911. But in the Yakima Health District, the county has an effective and innovative weapon against disease. The challenges facing this region make the district’s work on health-related action, outreach and education even that much more important.

Filed under: External