The Board of Health met 08/14/2024. One of the information items they received was the Health Departments 2nd quarter report.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
Health Officer Charles Sepers highlighted a few of the data points.
The city had seen a large increase in gastroenteric disease in 2024 as compared to this time in 2023. He did not know what the reason for that was and noted that the increase in cases was not connected to a single picnic- or restaurant-based outbreak but was rather the result of independent gastroenteric events.
STD rates among children under 18 had increased. He described this as “alarming” but also mentioned that it was on part with national trends. Board Chairperson Cathy Spears asked if they had a plan moving forward to respond to this increase. Health Officer Sepers said that currently the city contracted out STD follow-up to a community partner, but in 2025 they were proposing that the city budget funds that would allow the Health Department to take back that work in-house which would give them more control over what the follow-up looks like and provide a more robust educational component. [It was noted in 2022 that the city had contracted with Planned Parenthood to provide STD testing and treatment services.]
Lead elevation levels had decreased markedly, from 15 cases at this time last year to 9 this year. He noted that a couple years ago, the federal government had decreased the threshold for lead elevation from 5 to 3.5, but at this point the lower 3.5 level had been in place for two years so the report was comparing apples to apples, rather than comparing rates at the 3.5 level with rates at the 5 level.
The new Community Resource Navigator position was filled and active. She was part of the Health Department, based at the Police Department, and funding by Community Development through a Community Development Block Grant. She had 20 years of experience as a licensed social worker and was providing technical assistance to homeless individuals.
Finally, Health Officer Sepers told the board that they were experiencing an increased demand for Public Health nurse visits. This was partially driven by Latent Tuberculosis Infection cases. Although those cases were not transmissible, they still required treatment. It was also impacted by an increase in things like prenatal care coordination which had decreased during Covid but were now coming back.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1224339&GUID=854F5C40-96E3-4007-954F-FB2ED59A5D9F
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