Community News

 

ASHEVILLE, NC – September 6, 2022 – The Buncombe County Department of Health & Human Services (BCDHHS) will partner with 103.3 AshevilleFM and The Getaway River Bar to hold a monkeypox vaccination clinic today September 14^th from 6-10 PM at the bar’s location at 790 Riverside Drive in Asheville. The BCDHHS Mobile Team will administer the vaccines. According to Public Health Director Stacie Saunders, some doses of the new COVID-19 booster doses will also be available at the event.

Vaccinations to protect against monkeypox are now available for:

• Anyone who had close contact in the past two weeks with someone who has been diagnosed with monkeypox
• Gay or bisexual men or transgender individuals who report any of the following in the last 90 days:
  • Having multiple sex partners or anonymous sex
  • Being diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection
  • Receiving medications to prevent HIV infection (PrEP)

One of the strongest needs of the Buncombe County Department of Health & Human Services has been to have an equity-focused vaccination effort to reach underserved rural communities and populations. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been additional federal funding for public health at the community level. As a result, the Department has recently used some of these funds to purchase a mobile van and hire a team of 6 people including nurses and emergency medical technicians. According to Stacie Saunders at the September 6th Buncombe County Commissioners’ Briefing, the Team is ramping up their vaccination efforts throughout western North Carolina by having 6 previous monkeypox clinics and scheduling 3 more in the future. They are planning to expand their vaccination efforts to COVID-19 boosters, primary COVID vaccination and flu shots in addition to other types of vaccinations. Further expansion will include testing for different illnesses like COVID-19 and having health outreach clinics. At the recent Buncombe County media question & answer session on September 7^th, Stacie Saunders remarked that it is important to the Department “for equity purposes have to take services on the road.”

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

 

Contact: Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

 

ASHEVILLE, NC – September 14, 2022 – Here is this week’s Buncombe County COVID-19 update.

The CDC reports that the transmission level for Buncombe County is low for the week ending September 8th. Most of North Carolina is low or medium although 26 out of 100 counties are at a high transmission level. Most of the counties in the U.S. are at a low or medium level with only 17% of the counties at a high level. For a community at a low transmission level, the CDC recommends:

• You may choose to wear a mask at any time as an additional precaution to protect yourself and others.
• If you are at high risk for severe illness, consider wearing a mask indoors in public and take additional precautions.

The Buncombe County COVID-19 metrics are on the North Carolina COVID Dashboard. Data from the week ending on September 7^th indicate:

• There have been 136 cases per 100,000 residents in the last 7 days down from 132 cases in the previous week.
• 67% of the total population have received their full primary vaccination series. Unchanged the past 5 weeks.
• 66% of people with their full primary vaccination series have had at least one booster. This is unchanged over the past 3 weeks.
• The seven-day daily average of COVID-19 hospitalizations is 57 and has decreased by 10 since last week, and of ICU patients is 7 and has increased by 1 since the previous week.
• Wastewater surveillance may provide an early warning before individual testing shows that COVID-19 is spreading. The state dashboard reports that the 15-day rate of change of viral load for Buncombe County is moderately decreasing for the time period ending August 31th. The CDC website reports that the 15-day rate of change of viral load is moderately decreasing for the time period ending September 1^st.

The FDA and the CDC approved a new COVID booster that targets the original virus and the new dominant BA.4 and BA.5 variants. This new booster will replace the previous booster shot that had targeted only the original version of the virus. However, the original vaccine will still be used for persons who have not received the full primary vaccination series. The booster shots will be available at the Department of Public Health Coxe Avenue vaccination clinic, pharmacies, community health centers and rural health clinics. Eligible persons 12 years old and up can have the booster. They must be at least 2 months after any prior COVID-19 shots and have had the full primary vaccination series. The CDC advises that people who recently had COVID consider delaying their boosters until 3 months after their symptoms started or after a positive COVID test if they were asymptomatic.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends:

• Stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines and boosters.
• People with any COVID symptoms or exposure to someone with COVID should get tested
• People who are positive for COVID-19 or do not feel well should stay home

Vaccination sites and testing sites can be located through the North Carolina and Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services.

Save your face masks:

• The risk level may rise with a new variant
• A person at high risk for severe illness should speak with their health care provider
• Persons with a positive test, having symptoms, or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should protect themselves and others by wearing a mask.
• Effective May 4, 2022, the North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services and the CDC recommend wearing masks in health care and long-term care settings. The N95 or KN95 mask offers the best protection. Wear a mask that is well-fitting.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

 

WASHINGTON, DC – September 1, 2022 – The Food & Drug Administration approved emergency authorization for a new COVID booster on August 31^st and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention ratified it the following day. The vaccine is bivalent, which means that it targets 2 versions of the COVID virus, the original virus and the new dominant BA.4 and BA.5 variants. The BA.5 strain accounts for almost 90% of all COVID infections in the U.S. The remainder of U.S. infections are due to the BA.4 strain. Eligible persons 12 years old and up can have the Pfizer-BioNTech booster while eligible people 18 years and up can have the new Moderna vaccine. They must be at least 2 months after any prior COVID-19 shots and have had the full primary vaccination series. The CDC advises that people who recently had COVID consider delaying their boosters until 3 months after their symptoms started or after their positive COVID test if they were asymptomatic.

Targeting the most recent virus strains has been the approach taken by the annual flu shot. Flu shots are updated every year. This approach has been proven effective at reducing illness. It is hope that the new COVID-19 booster will boost the level of antibodies to protective levels while reducing the risk of new infections and long COVID. The original boosters have been shown to continue to reduce the risk of severe illness and death due to infections from the newer strains. They were more effective against preventing infections before the virus began to form newer strains and then has lost some of its effectiveness. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said via a statement on August 30^th, “the updated Covid-19 boosters are formulated to better protect against the most recently circulating Covid-19 variant. They can help restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination and were designed to provide broader protection against newer variants.” It takes between 1 to 2 weeks after you get the booster for the antibodies to rise significantly.

This new booster will replace the previous booster shot that had targeted only the original version of the virus. However, the original vaccine will still be used for persons who have not received the full primary vaccination series.

It is very important that permission for emergency authorization be obtained before a presumed fall surge of cases as seen with the flu and frequently with many other viral respiratory diseases. The drug companies took less than 3 months to modify the original vaccine to be more specific for the newer viral strains. This is an advantage of vaccines produced from mRNA technology. They can be modified over a shorter time period than vaccines derived from the older technology.

All previous COVID vaccines have been underwritten by the federal government so they are free to everyone that wanted one. The government is soon to run out of money to cover the cost of the vaccination because there has been no extension authorized by Congress. It is likely that starting in January 2023, people will have to pay for the vaccines; therefore, introducing a potential development of disparities in treatment based on the ability to pay. Dr Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, remarks ”one’s ability to pay for a vaccine should not determine whether or not someone receives a vaccine.”

The booster shots will be available after Labor Day. The  federal government has purchased 171 million doses. Pharmacies, community health centers and rural health clinics have been allowed to pre-order the shots from the federal government. Many have begun to schedule appointments for booster administration in addition to the primary vaccination series.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

 

ASHEVILLE, NC – September 07, 2022 – Here is this week’s Buncombe County COVID-19 update.

The CDC reports that the transmission level for Buncombe County is low for the week ending August 31st. Most of North Carolina is low or medium although 30 out of 100 counties are at a high transmission level. Most of the counties in the U.S. are at a low or medium level with only 26% of the counties at a high level. For a community at a low transmission level, the CDC recommends:

• You may choose to wear a mask at any time as an additional precaution to protect yourself and others.
• If you are at high risk for severe illness, consider wearing a mask indoors in public and take additional precautions.

The Buncombe County COVID-19 metrics are on the North Carolina COVID Dashboard. Data from the week ending on August 27^th indicate:

• There have been 132 cases per 100,000 residents in the last 7 days down 11% from 149 cases in the previous week.
• 67% of the total population have received their full primary vaccination series. Unchanged for the past 4 weeks.
• 66% of people with their full primary vaccination series have had at least one booster. This is unchanged over the past 2 weeks.
• The seven-day daily average of COVID-19 hospitalizations is 67 and has decreased by 2 since last week, and of ICU patients is 6 and has decreased by 3 since the previous week.
• Wastewater surveillance may provide an early warning before individual testing shows that COVID-19 is spreading. The state dashboard reports that the 15-day rate of change of viral load for Buncombe County is moderately decreasing for the time period ending August 24th. The CDC website reports that the 15-day rate of change of viral load is moderately increasing for the time period ending August 29th.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends:

• Stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines and boosters.
• People with any COVID symptoms or exposure to someone with COVID should get tested
• People who are positive for COVID-19 or do not feel well should stay home

Vaccination sites and testing sites can be located through the North Carolina and Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services.

Save your face masks:

• The risk level may rise with a new variant
• A person at high risk for severe illness should speak with their health care provider
• Persons with a positive test, having symptoms, or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should protect themselves and others by wearing a mask.
• Effective May 4, 2022, the North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services and the CDC recommend wearing masks in health care and long-term care settings. The N95 or KN95 mask offers the best protection. Wear a mask that is well-fitting.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

 

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY – August 26, 2022 – In July, a case of paralytic polio was detected in Rockland County, New York, north of New York City. The person was unvaccinated and exposed to someone who had received the oral polio vaccine. This is the first case of polio originating in the U.S. since 1979. Dr. José Romero, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told CNN “I think most of the American public has never seen a case of polio. People have lost that fear, if you will, of the disease.”

On  August 12^th, New York City health authorities said that the polio virus has been identified in wastewater samples since May. The polio virus has also been detected in wastewater samples in Rockland County and Orange County, N.J., both near New York City. Detection of polio virus in the wastewater may indicate future cases of polio in New York City or the immediate vicinity. There “must be several hundred cases in the community circulating,” a senior official with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN earlier this month.

In New York City, the rate of polio vaccination among children 5 years and under is 86%, lower than the national rate of 93%. Vaccination rates in neighboring Rockland County and Orange County are about 60%. Vaccination rates in New York City have fallen because regular doctor visits were postponed during the COVID crisis and from vaccine misinformation that became more prevalent during the COVID pandemic. Some small ethnic & religious groups have not vaccinated their children, like the ultraorthodox Jewish community in Rockland County where this recent case was identified.

“The risk to New Yorkers is real but the defense is so simple — get vaccinated against polio,” Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the New York City health commissioner, said in a statement. “With polio circulating in our communities, there is simply nothing more essential than vaccinating our children to protect them from this virus, and if you’re an unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated adult, please choose now to get the vaccine.”

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour

 

ASHEVILLE, NC – August 26, 2022 – Polio is an infectious disease caused by the polio virus. It is highly infectious and spreads from person-to-person. Polio has an asymptomatic form, a mild form and a severe form. The majority of people with polio do not have any symptoms so it can spread silently. Symptoms of sore throat and fever are in the mild form. The severe type affects the central nervous system resulting in paralysis or non-paralytic nerve damage and weakness. About 1 in 200 infected persons will become paralyzed. By the 20^th century, polio became one of the most worrisome childhood diseases in the U.S. and the world. In 1952, prior to the polio vaccine rollout in 1955, there were more than 20,000 cases of paralysis in the U.S. due to polio. With the discovery of polio vaccines, mass immunization of people in developed countries followed by developing nations led to a sharp decline in the number of polio cases in the U.S. and worldwide. By 2021, there were only 6 confirmed cases in 3 countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Malawi).

There is no cure for polio, but it can be prevented through vaccination. One type of vaccine is weakened live virus administered orally and the other type is inactivated polio virus given by injection. Only the inactivated vaccine is used in the U.S. However, the oral vaccine is used in much of the world. Therefore, a person who receives the oral vaccine can spread a weakened form of polio virus to others. In communities with low vaccination rates, or in immunocompromised persons, the weakened virus can mutate to a virulent form that can cause severe polio illness.

Four doses of the injected vaccine, usually administered between ages 2 months and 6 years, can provide at least 99% protection against severe disease. No cases of polio have originated in the U.S. since 1979. However, the last time polio has been in this country was brought in by travelers in 2013. According to the CDC, almost 93% of all children in the U.S. have had the full polio vaccination series. Therefore, the elimination of polio has been attributed to a successful vaccination program.

 

Wastewater surveillance has been used to track disease-producing virus material that can be shed in an infected person’s stool. Scientists can use this data to track the amount of virus material and whether it is rising or falling in a particular area. This technique has been used to study the amount of COVID-19 virus in a community. Recently, it been used to track polio virus in many communities in the U.S. and worldwide. This year, the polio virus has also been detected in wastewater in New York City and surrounding counties, Israel and London. The Metropolitan Sewage District plant for Buncombe County in partnership with the Buncombe County Health Department, the CDC, and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, has been testing for COVID-19. According to General Manager Tom Hartye, the district plant does not presently test for polio.

 

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour