Quad Cities Appeal for Help

July 8, 2009 (LPAC)-- On June 29, the Rock Island County Health Department in Illinois—serving the Quad Cities area on the Mississippi River (Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa, and Rock Island and East Moline in Illinois) issued a statement that speaks for hundreds of counties cross-country. The Quad Cities region is a key rail and highway transit corridor, home to the Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District, serving the Upper Mississippi Basin, and the world headquarters of the pre-eminent farm equipment manufacturer John Deere & Co.

"The Rock Island County Health Department...[and] local health departments throughout the state have been informed that the entire budget for Health Protection programs has been eliminated.

"Health Protection programs include core public health services such as communicable disease surveillance and control, enforcement programs to ensure that food is safely handled at restaurants and retail outlets, and inspections of private sewage disposal systems and water wells. It doesn't get much more basic than safe food and safe drinking water. These are all programs that are mandated by the state, but carried out by local health departments. An example is the public health role in disease outbreaks such as the recent H1N1 outbreak [in April]. The Rock Island County Health Department led community partners in response activities regarding H1N1. Any cuts would damage the capacity to not only conduct day-to-day responsibilities, but also to be able to respond to unexpected, yet inevitable future events of significant magnitude."

The Illinois state government will take up the question on July 14, of whether and how to restore funding for local public health. Meantime, the A/H1N1 flu is not waiting around. The Chicago/Cook County area, one of the North American A/H1N1 spread points, has had more than 2,100 lab-confirmed cases. Rock Island County itself has confirmed 13 cases.

Other states are in the same situation. In Massachusetts, for example, the town of Worcester now has only two public health nurses, after budget cuts called "draconian" by City Manager Michael V. O'Brien.

Nationwide, some 12,000 public health worker jobs were eliminated last year. Now the rate of elimination has increased.

Meantime, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is issuing Potemkin Village-style pandemic-fighting plans, involving coordinating anti-flu vaccination drives this Fall with state and local public health officials—who won't be there.