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Expects to receive $40,000-$45,000 from ODH for 18-month project
AUSTINTOWN
The Mahoning County Board of Health expects to receive a $40,000 to $45,000 state grant to develop a community plan over the next 18 months to deal with Ebola or other infectious diseases.
“We have things we need to accomplish. We have to have plans in place in case something happens, like Ebola, for which there is no vaccine,” said Susan Kovach, emergency preparedness planner for the Mahoning County District Board of Health.
Among topics to be addressed are isolation and quarantine, public information and warning, safety and health of responders, and surveillance and epidemiology, or keeping track of the infection and investigating cases, said Kovach at Wednesday’s board meeting.
The planning period is next month through September 2016.
“We had one case of Ebola, in Summit County, that sparked the planning. But, it could be applied to any infectious disease,” Kovach said.
She said Mahoning and Trumbull counties will be working together because they share hospital systems — Mercy Health and ValleyCare Health Care of Ohio, both of which have facilities in each county.
The Mahoning County Health Department’s Nursing Division will be involved in the training, and the department also will train Youngstown State University student nurses on how to dispense medications to everyone in the community should there be a need for something such as anthrax, Kovach said.
In other action, the board reorganized and voted to keep its regular meeting at 8 a.m. on the fourth Wednesday of the month.
Leonard Perry and Margot Baird were elected board president and vice president, respectively.