Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department hosts discussion on responses to public health emergencies
The Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department held a public health emergency response session at the Wood County Resiliency Center on Wednesday. (Photo provided by Amy Phelps)
PARKERSBURG — The Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department held a tabletop session at the Wood County Resiliency Center on Wednesday. Representatives who work for the health department in Wood, Pleasants, Ritchie, Roane, Wirt and Calhoun counties came together to discuss scenarios and responses for public health emergencies. The tabletop exercise discussed H5N1 scenarios and how the health departments would and should respond. The exercises focused on H5N1 as the topic because it was sponsored by the state and a state representative was present to assist the exercises and evaluations. “We have 60% of our staff that was here during COVID so 40% of our staff was not here to understand some of our protocol,” said Community Health and Threat Preparedness Director Malcolm Lanham. He described different scenarios that were related to an H5N1 outbreak in the county that the health department representatives had to analyze. One example of a scenario the group had to discuss was that the state found eight dead wild birds, two in four counties, and a family got in contact with one of the infected birds and started having symptoms and from there it started spreading through various avenues. Each health department would then discuss and share how they would respond to the situation. “The evaluation is subjective but we also had certain objectives we want to compare ourselves to,” he said. “The evaluators would say whether we passed or failed (the scenario) and then give us feedback on why they gave us that grade.” Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department Public Information Officer Amy Phelps said this was the first session they’ve had with six county health departments together. Phelps also said the goal for this exercise is so each department knows how to respond to a variety of emergency situations. “During COVID, there were a lot of things we didn’t know and there were things at various levels of government that did not follow plans that were in place,” said Lanham. He said that this gives them the opportunity, regardless of the situation, to respond to the best of their ability. He said that this will benefit the community because the health departments will know how to better respond to various situations that come their way. For more information on the health department visit www.movhd.com. Amber Phipps can be reached at aphipps@newsandsentinel.com.Local News
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