Good morning. Wednesday, July
22nd, 2026. We'll start with
the Pledge of Allegiance. If
you'll join me in standing. I
pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which
it stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
>> I feel like we should sing
the national anthem.
>> Thank you. Are there. Let's
go with the roll call.
>> Councilor Belkot. Present
Councilor Fuentes here.
Councilor Little here, Chair
Marshall here. And I think
Councilor Young is out.
>> He's he's out. I think he's
listening in, though. But he
wasn't able to be here. Okay.
Are there any amendments to the
agenda? No. No amendments. Okay,
then let's open it up for
public comment. Just a reminder,
you're limited to three minutes.
And this is the Board of Health.
Okay. There's two online. We'll
hear from them.
>> Kaliner you've been sent a
request to unmute yourself.
Please do so. State your name
for the record and go ahead
with your comments.
>> Good morning, Kimberly
Gavenn Elbon. So I did put a
written comment there on
today's agenda. I'd ask the
public to read that and share a
little bit on the language.
Thing here. I'm looking on the,
the agenda, your language
access line, you know, God made
all people, but we are a
sovereign nation there. We are
harboring illegal immigrants.
And for me, that takes away
from the American people that
are working hard to keep their
jobs and food on their table
and their children educated,
yet we're going to have to
spend a lot of hard earned tax
dollars on this language
barrier. These people need to
learn the American English
language. Frankly, I'm all for
Ice, you know, trying to get
him out there. It's a deep
subject, you know, but I'm
against hard earned tax dollars
being used for this. We're
talking a lot of money. I know
that when I get a medical thing,
there's two and a half pages
worth of my money's going to
translations and and all that.
So I want to mention a little
bit about the jail as far as
public health. And I'm going to
speak particularly about my son,
Cleghon. He has been in there.
There's no good nutrition, no
good proteins. It's all
processed, which means
chemicals are added to all the
foods that are grown there, and
then they use them there to
feed the people there. He has
lost all of his body mass. He
doesn't even have butt muscles
anymore. So I'm really
concerned about that. Hopefully
his case will become a what's
called a case law, where the
court system will listen to
what he has to say in his case
law. We need a new jail system.
There's a lot of area in the
jail, the visiting room. We
can't go in and visit anymore
in person through the glass. So
there's the whole thing needs
to be rebuilt. I mentioned in
my written comment about
chemtrails. You guys need to
stop all chemtrails going above
Clark County, and I hope you've
been doing something and not
just satisfying the law that
you have an open public comment
meeting and then just ignore
what we have to say. I'm very
concerned about those
chemtrails. I can't even
breathe my name. My nose is
plugged up from it and all that
because I get outside. I
consider overpopulation
pollution a health hazard to
those of us.
>> Thank you. Your time is up.
One more, one more. Okay.
>> Caller, you've been sent a
request to unmute yourself.
Please do so. State your name
for the record and go ahead
with your comments.
>> Hello?
>> Hello. We can hear you.
>> Right on. Okay, so this is
Melo, Carmen de Lehan. And I
did see this on the agenda
about the languages. And I'm
talking to you from experience.
When I was in Romania, they
took a week to find me somebody
only because I was hysterical.
Otherwise they pretty much hung
up on me and laughed. When I
was in Guatemala as a teenager.
Go figure. I was a teenager in
Guatemala, got arrested. They
dragged me by my hair, threw me
into the police car. I spoke
only English because I knew
that they were going to, you
know, probably this which is
disappear you in Guatemala when
I was about 15. So I spoke only
English. They laughed at me.
They laughed. Why'd you come to
this country? Not speaking the
language. It's. You're on you.
Luckily, my uncle showed up in
full military regalia, and of
course, they threw me at him
and I was free to walk away.
But what I'm saying is, in this
country, we put out a red
carpet for people from other
countries and they laugh at us.
You go to Bulgaria, you go to
to any other country and ask
for translation or free medical
and free housing and free food
stamps. They're going to laugh
at you. I know from experience,
I've been to Europe. It's a
joke. They don't give a about
you. And they do call us lazy,
stupid Americans. Because guess
what? They're almost right.
Because we are the most obese
nation in nation in the world.
So yeah, we have a health
crisis. And it's sad that you
can OD on the street and the
cops aren't going to care
anymore because as you can see,
the cops have just been told to
leave drug users alone. So yeah,
go ahead, free meth on the
street. Everybody come from all
over the nation to this state
because drug use is still
endorsed and giving you free
needles and stuff like that,
which I think is perpetuating
the problem. And I know people
coming from other states to
come here because homelessness
and drug use is just, well, the
match. So anyways, we do have a
health crisis and it is drugs
and we need to prosecute the
drug dealers. And that includes
people letting the drugs into
the country. So and people who
come here and don't speak the
language that's on them. My
parents put me in a private
lessons to make sure I spoke
Spanish. My daughter is not
going to be stupid. She's going
to learn the language. All four
of us private lessons. We read
and speak Spanish fluently. A
little bit of an accent, but
hey, they educated us because
they knew where we were going
and they prepared us because
they loved us. If all these
people come here unprepared,
that's on them. Why should we
pay their way? If it's on them,
they come here. They should
speak the language. Thank you
very much. I don't know how
much time I have. Do I have any
more time?
>> You have 15 seconds.
>> Okay, well, I'm just saying.
God bless everybody. Enjoy the
sunshine. Thank you for your
attention. And yeah, no more
free translation. You can get a
free translation online on your
phone now.
>> We okay? Is there anyone
else? That's it. Okay, that
closes public comment. The
consent agenda is next. It's
the approval of the minutes.
Are there any corrections to
the minutes? Hearing none. I'll
entertain a motion to approve.
>> So moved.
>> Thank you. Is there a second?
>> Second.
>> Thank you. Moved and
seconded. All in favor, say I.
I I. I motion carries. Thank
you. Then. Public health in
action language access line.
Good morning.
>> Good morning. I just record
doctor Alan Melnick, public
health director and health
officer. Delighted to introduce
Marissa Armstrong who is our
communications manager who's
going to give this presentation.
>> Good morning again. Marissa
Armstrong I'm the
communications manager for
public Health. And I'm going to
talk to you today about our
language access voicemail
system. Just a quick overview
of what we're going to cover
today. Consider some of the
barriers that are experienced
by people who speak languages
other than English. When they
call public health by phone.
Going to go over our voicemail
access system and then review
some of the data from the first
18 months of the system. Next
slide. Just to give you a
little bit of background, the
Public Health Communications
Program is a small three person
team that provides support for
our all of our department
programs in their communication
related work. So handouts and
letters, postcards, any kind of
outreach materials. But we also
are responsible for developing
and managing all the content on
our social media, working with
our local news media, managing
and reviewing content that goes
on our website, and then
overseeing some of our
department wide communications
policies and contracts, which
includes this language access
system that we're going to talk
about today. Communication is
also a foundational public
health services or PHS
capability. So we've been able
to use PHS funding to increase
our communication support for
programs. I would note we had a
categorical funding for funding
for communications, but that
was among some of the funding
that was cut for 2027. So for
next year, that's going to be
backfilled by fund balance.
Communications is also part of
our indirect services or our
overhead programs. So other
programs in the department
contribute funding towards the
communication support for their
teams. Next slide please. Oh
you're there. So public health
has a phone tree system. When
people call us, they are they
hear prompts instructing them
to select an option and go
through those prompts to get to
the program or service that
they need. Those prompts and
the messages they hear are
entirely in English. So people
who speak languages other than
English or are facing
considerable barriers when
trying to get through to us.
With this in mind, we started
talking to some staff to find
out what they do when they get
a phone call from someone
speaking a language other than
English. And we found a largely
they didn't get those calls. If
there was someone who called
and did not speak English, they.
They usually had a family
member or a friend on the call
with them and had them serve as
their interpreter. But again,
that still required navigating
the phone tree system to in
English. So we were
inadvertently really placing
that burden of access on the
community member trying to
reach us. And that made it
clear to us that we needed some
sort of department wide process
and system in place to make
sure that the services we
provide and our information is
accessible to residents who
speak English as well as other
languages. Next slide. So we
started reaching out to other
county departments and health
departments to see how they
handled calls like this. Some
have a like a central
switchboard or a receptionist,
like a main phone number that
people can call and would get
triaged from there and they
would use over the phone on
demand interpreters to help
that person or get them
connected. Others in kind of
smaller offices would just go
down the hall and grab the
person who speaks that language
and have them come serve as the
interpreter for them. Those
weren't really options for us,
either of them. We don't have
kind of a central receptionist
or switchboard that for our
entire department. We. And
while we do have staff members
who speak other languages, it
just wasn't really a practical
option where a very large
department with multiple
program areas, our staff are
primarily working remote or in
the field, and it would still,
again, require people to use
that phone tree to get through,
to even be connected with
someone in the first place. So
there wasn't anything we could
kind of replicate or work from.
So we started brainstorming. We
talked to staff who work with
the different in different
sectors, work with different
community members. We worked
with our county telecom to
understand the phone tree
capabilities. We talked with
our with the language access
expert to understand best
practices, and we talked with
our contracted language service
providers to see interpretation
options that were available
through them. And after quite a
bit of research and
troubleshooting, we finally
landed on a system that would
work for us and launched it in
January of 2025. Next slide
please. So when a community
member calls our main number,
they're first prompted to
select a language. If they
select English, they're just
routed through our normal phone
tree and nothing changes in the
process for them. If they
choose a different language,
the options are Spanish,
Russian, Vietnamese, or two
keys. Those were selected
because they are among the most
commonly spoken languages in
Clark County. If they select
one of those languages, they
are routed to a voicemail box.
There is one voicemail box for
each of the languages they call
and hear a message in that
language, instructing them to
leave us a message with the
reason for their call, the best
time to call them, and letting
them know that we're going to
be returning the with an
interpreter on the phone. Then
those voicemail files are sent
by email to the communications
team, and we use an online
service, an online program, to
translate and transcribe that
audio file into a written
English transcript so that we
can understand what the person
needs, and from there, triage
it to the appropriate program
to give them a call back. We
have a we created an internal
tracking system. So we enter
the information of that call
into this tracking system and
send the transcript and all the
call details to the appropriate
program staff to follow up and
get back to the person. So they
are asked staff get that and
are asked to use our contracted
language service providers and
get an interpreter on the phone
and return that person's call
within three days. They receive
automated reminders if the call
isn't closed out within three
days, and then again at five
days. And our team also
receives those reminders so we
can follow up with staff and
make sure they're not running
into any issues or isn't
anything else. They need to be
able to complete that phone
call. And next slide, please.
We developed a number of
internal tools to support the
process. As I mentioned, we
have a tracking system, so
we're tracking the details of
all of those calls, the date,
the language spoken, the
program that was assigned to
respond, and how the call was
ultimately resolved. We
developed a department
procedure to document the roles
and responsibilities for the
system, and we developed a
number of resources for staff.
This document on the screen
here is one that we give to
staff when they receive one of
these messages, and it walks
them through the process of how
to get an interpreter on the
line, how to call the person
back. There's a script in case
they get the person's voicemail,
know to leave them a message,
explain that they're calling
with an interpreter, they'll
return the call and give a
specific time or day that
they're going to return the
call. So that person will
hopefully be available to
answer when we call back. It
also has instructions for going
into the tracking system and
updating the status of the call.
And then we created an
instructional video that kind
of walks through that process
for them as well. Next slide.
So we launched this in January
of 2025. And since then we've
had 40 calls through the
language access voicemail
systems. 90% of them have been
in Spanish and then 5% each in
Russian and Vietnamese. We
haven't had any chuukese calls
yet. Most of the calls have
been assigned to for programs
for follow up. Our
environmental Public Health
support team, which supports
all of our environmental health
programs, the communications
team, vital records, and STI
HIV prevention. The remaining
five were kind of one off calls
that went to different programs.
Some examples of the types of
calls to the environmental
public health support team were
a lot of permit questions.
What's needed to get a permit?
What's the process for the
permits? Questions related to
food cart requirements, and
then some food establishment
complaints. The calls coming to
communications have been more
of the general calls, people
looking for information about
enrolling in health insurance
or accessing Medicaid, looking
for free or low cost medical,
medical or dental care calls to
vital records or people with
questions about getting their
birth or death certificates or
corrections to those documents.
And then STI. HIV prevention is
people looking for testing or
treatment services. Next slide.
So our goal is for the
communications team to get the
message, translate it,
transcribe it and assign it to
program staff. Within one
business day. We have to date
done that for every single call.
And actually all but one was
assigned the same day that we
received it so we could get it
out to staff right away. Then
we aim to have all of the calls
closed within three business
days. To date, we've had 90% of
close calls closed within three
business days, and 80% have
been closed the same day or
within one day. Of the four
calls that weren't closed
within three business days,
three of those were ones that
were kept open for multiple
days. As our staff made
multiple attempts to try and
reach the person. So there was
several attempts to get in
contact with them in that time
span. Of the 40 calls we've
received, 88% were closed with
someone on our staff using an
interpreter and getting that
call returned and making
contact with the individual who
called us. Four of them were
calls that we were unable to
get a hold of them after
multiple attempts, and one was
just an incomplete info. They
forgot to leave a phone number,
so we didn't have a way to get
back to them. Next slide. We
started this with a soft launch
to give us a chance to work
through any issues, make sure
staff were available. We just
made it live on our phone tree
and and waited to see what
happened. And we got our first
call within I think six days.
We had several calls that first
month. Then we started doing a
little bit of promotion. We
created this flier that
explains that people can call
us and we'll call them back
with an interpreter. We gave
that to some of our community
partners to share, and then we
did a little bit of promotion
on our social media. We've also
added the information on some
of our translated documents
that are in those languages,
letting them know more
specifically that they can call
and have a place to leave us a
message, and we'd get back to
them. We're continuing to try
and promote this, looking for
more ways to get the word out,
working with community partners
to share information, as well
as continuing with social media
and website promotion. And
we've also shared the
information about this system
with other county departments
and health departments who've
been heard about it and
interested and wanted to learn
more and potentially implement
it in their own department. And
with that, I think that is it.
But I'm happy to answer any
questions that you have.
>> Okay. Thank you very much.
Are there any questions? Yes.
>> No questions. But I do have
a comment. Well, thanks so much
for for this information. I
think there's a lot of value as
our county, as our city, and
our county continues to
diversify and different
languages that are spoken.
These services are absolutely
needed in contrary to what some
of the callers might have said,
these individuals, whether you
speak English or Spanish or
Chuukese or any other language,
they pay taxes. They pay taxes
through sales taxes, property
taxes, federal taxes and fees,
all that we utilize to provide
these type of services. And I
was going to say, so I'm kind
of curious, the do you have
Chuukese translators on site or
at the contact center?
>> So we use.
>> We have contracts with
several language service
provider companies and they
provide over the phone on
demand interpretation. So when
we need to reach someone, we
will get an interpreter on the
phone using the on demand
system, and then return the
phone call and have kind of a
three way call, basically.
>> Okay, perfect. So you use a
third party language call. Okay.
Got it. Congratulations on the
90% close within three business
days. But I am curious, three
business days seems to be a
long time. Is there any reason
why that expectation has been
set?
>> We said it just.
>> Understanding that if it
took a day for just to get the
call and processed and sent to
them, and then depending on the
nature of the call, if it was
something specific to like a
food permit and we needed to
have a specific staff member
with that expertise to call
them back, just giving a little
bit of grace period in case
it's needing a little more time
to get the information or the
right person on the call on the
phone to return the call.
>> Got it. This is great. Well,
thank you so much. I, as I
mentioned earlier, I think this
is a much needed service for
our community members. And I
suspect that we're going to
continue to see an increase in
calls from different languages
asking for support from public
health, particularly from from
food permitting. So thank you.
>> Thank you. Go ahead.
>> Sure.
>> Yeah. Just want to go back
to something you said at the
beginning. Communications seems
to be essential to public
health and getting the word out
on all sorts of things. And you
mentioned that it's considered
overhead. Is that is it
considered overhead by us or is
that a state law or is there a
way to change that? It just
seems like an essential service
of public health, especially,
and I wouldn't want it to be
considered overhead.
>> Oh, Jeff, Jeff is stepping
up to the mic.
>> Go ahead. Okay, so overhead
in this case is just merely
where it lies within our budget
and how it's funded. There's
not categorical funding to
support the work. So we have to
find a way to fund the work so
we can maintain the services.
In this case, it's in our
overhead pool. So all programs
within public health contribute
to it.
>> Yeah. I mean, I've run two
nonprofits and I've, I've been
their main fundraiser. And the
hardest thing to fundraise for
is the overhead, which I think
is usually the most essential
services. Yeah. The operations.
There's no way to change that.
It just considered overhead by
our internal systems or, or
what.
>> I'm, I can speak for public
health and say if there was
dedicated county general fund
to support this work, we would
definitely accept it. There's
just there's not categorical
funding available system wide
for things like this. You know,
our finance team, our grants
and contracts team, there's a
lot of things that are really
essential to public health
functioning adequately. Same
same exact situation. There's
not categorical funding
available for for those things.
>> Okay.
>> I don't know if anyone is a
great question.
>> Yeah, it seems more
programmatic to me than
overhead. So if there's any
solution to change that or
shift it, I'd be supportive.
Thanks.
>> Okay. Councilor Belkot, do
you have any questions? Okay.
And so that's just been those
three languages, Spanish,
Russian and Vietnamese. No
calls from the community. And I
know you all do outreach to
multiple communities. And so
building that trust is an
important thing. As I'm curious
about the third party contract,
is this a a local provider? I'm
just wondering if they're
hiring local translators to
translate.
>> We have a 5 or 6 contracts
with different providers. They
are. It varies. Some of them
are based in Washington. A
couple of them are based in
Washington. I can't recall all
like where each of them are
located, but some of them are
in Washington. When we're doing
like in-person interpretation,
then it's certainly they're
they're having local people who
are the interpreters go out
with them when it's over the
phone. They're not necessarily
local in Clark County since
it's over the phone.
>> Right. I have heard, and I
don't know if it's still a
lingering problem, but with two
kids in particular, there's I'm
not sure if the state
recognizes it as a language.
And I know there's multiple
Pacific Islander languages,
some aren't recognized and that
in some cases they haven't used
like a native speaker. And some
of the translation wasn't
actually accurate. So I just
wonder about like quality
control.
>> Yeah. And we do have a
contract with a local, a local
language service provider for
Pacific Islander languages
specifically. And when we did
our RFP for the language
service contracts, it was we
made a point to make sure that
they could provide chuukese in
a variety of other Pacific
Islander languages in the
various platforms that we need
over the phone in person. It
was a piece of our criteria
when we were reviewing.
>> Okay, that's that's great to
hear. Any other questions?
>> I'm just going to ask you
working directly with Sakura 30
Niners, they're translating
services.
>> They are not the ones that
we have. No.
>> Because they know they do
provide translators through to
DPS and the courts. In addition,
I remember Chair Marshall,
there was legislation or a bill
that was proposed last year to
recognize the Chuukese language,
and I don't believe it made it
in front of the legislature and
fully discussed.
>> That would be a good one to
follow up.
>> Absolutely. I think it's
something that we need to
consider. We have about 6000
Chuukese community members, not
including other Pacific
Islanders in Clark County alone.
So and, you know, so it would
be worth looking into it this
next legislative session.
>> And I'm curious about other
departments in the county being
able to utilize this service.
So it would have to be they
would have to develop their own
contracts to do this.
>> I think there's other I
think the other departments are
county wide. There are other
contracts for them to use
interpreters. And I've shared,
like with public works, all of
the information that we have,
kind of the system that we use
so that they could replicate it
and implement it in their
department. So it would just be
a matter of them finding, you
know, adjusting it to kind of
fit their needs and what their,
how their programs or their
department operates.
>> Great. I'm just thinking of
law and justice in particular.
And there may be some funding
issues along with all of this.
Okay. Any other questions?
Great. Thank you very much.
This is a wonderful service to
be able to provide so everyone
can have access. Yeah. Thanks.
Okay. Directors report. You
have some timely things to
inform us of.
>> Yeah. I'm going to start I
think the first part of the
report is a little overview of
the Cyclosporiasis outbreak. So
you may have heard on the news
that the United States is
experiencing a rise in
cyclosporiasis cases, including
this large multistate outbreak.
And 34 states at this point
have reported cases that were
acquired in the United States.
And so far, the last I checked.
Recently, there have been 1600
cases linked to the outbreak
with. According to the CDC. The
last number I saw was about 141
hospitalizations. Related to
that. The FDA and the CDC have
been have been investigating
the outbreak, and I think many
of us have heard in the news
that it was traced to a single
supplier of shredded iceberg
lettuce, Taylor Farms de Mexico,
and then the the supplier,
Taylor Farms, issued a recall
of that source, which includes
iceberg lettuce sold to
restaurants and retail
locations, including Walmart
stores. So far, the
investigation shows that there
were. The recalled products
were not distributed in
Washington or Oregon, so not in
our area. We've not identified
in Washington state any cases
linked to the outbreak. We've
had 38 cases in Washington
state since May 1st, which is a
bit higher than recent years,
but not completely atypical. US
see more Cyclospora
Cyclosporiasis in the summer.
Most of the cases we've seen
are related to international
travel, and you see more of it
in in tropical types of
climates. We don't have any
evidence of an outbreak
occurring in Washington state
or in Clark County at this
point. So the the good news
about cycles, if there's any
good news about it, is that
it's not transmitted person to
person. So if you ingest. So
what happens is when you have
the infection, you. In your
stool, you excrete immature
forms of the organism. And
they're not infectious. So at
least not right away. What they
they end up in the environment
in a warm, moist environment.
They become infectious. They
mature and develop and become
infectious. And then when you
eat that contaminated product
with the with these mature
organisms, that's how you get
sick. I think the challenge is
in terms of identifying the,
the the source is that after
you ingest these mature
organisms, it can take up to
two weeks. The incubation
period can can range from two
days to two weeks. So, you know,
just like all other kinds of
outbreaks, we do case and
contact investigations. And we,
we interview folks and ask what
they've, what their exposures
might have been. And
remembering what you've eaten
two weeks before becomes very
difficult. So it's challenging
to really identify the source.
You might have heard that there
was one US lettuce specimen,
one specimen that was ended up
being a false positive. And
people were questioning whether,
well, could you really tie it
to the source? And and just
like other outbreak
investigations, the
epidemiology, the, the
interviews with folks and
looking at cases versus people
who are not sick and seeing
what the cases had in common
really helps confirm that this
was indeed the source of the
outbreak. I don't know if folks
have any questions. One, one
thing, one thing I do want to
recommend is because, you know,
food can be contaminated with
this, particularly fresh fruits
and vegetables that, you know,
for example, washing them
thoroughly before eating them
is really recommended.
>> Great. Thank you. I think I
just have a comment. I think it
speaks to the challenges when
we have a very centralized food
system, that one provider can
have a product that goes out so,
so widely. So I think buying
locally can be helpful. In
addition to washing your fruits
and vegetables. Thank you for
that update. And then I did
have a question about
raspberries because I think
raspberries have been, I don't
know if it was people were
alarmed that raspberries might
be infected.
>> And well, I mean, I'm not
aware of it here, but it's
possible. And again, wash your
wash your berries.
>> Great. All right.
>> That goes for blueberries to
raspberry. You know, all of
them.
>> I wash them all. Okay. Thank
you for that update. And now
bats and rabies.
>> Yeah, yeah. So we have some
information available on our
website. So one of my favorite
times of year is the late
spring and summer into the
early fall bat season. So, you
know, they hibernate during the,
during the winter. So this is
when we see when it's more
likely for people to encounter
bats because they're out and
about less than 1%. So, so bats
are the only reservoir for
rabies in Washington state.
It's found in other animals.
You know, for example, in in
Oregon and Idaho. But in
Washington state, it's
basically bats are the
reservoir. Of course, there are
reservoirs in Oregon and Idaho
as well. In, in the wild, about
1% of bats carry rabies. But
bats that people encounter
because they're not exhibiting.
When we have an encounter with
a bat, the bat is generally not
having an encounter with them
because they may not be
displaying typical bad behavior.
3% of 3 to 10% of the bats that
are involved in human
encounters. When we've had
exposures, when they're tested,
they're found to be when we're
able to test them, they're
found to to be carry rabies. So
you can be we can ask a
question or.
>> I'm curious because you
mentioned that when you
encounter a bat with rabies,
it's not displaying normal bad
behavior. Now, I've never
encountered either a bat with
rabies or without rabies. So
how do how can you tell?
>> You can't tell. So I
probably should have phrased
that a little bit differently
from my, you know, from people.
Bats show up in unusual places.
You may find them under a under
a log or something, not where
they might usually be, but it's
not you can't differentiate.
You can't differentiate whether
bat is rabid just by looking at
them and seeing them flying
around. You need to assume that
all bats are potentially rabid,
and I probably shouldn't even
mentioned that I just. The
point I want to make is that
more 3 to 10% of bats that are
associated with human
encounters, you know, where we
actually submit specimens for
testing have been found to be
rabid. And yeah.
>> No thanks that that clears
things up. So in the event that
I do run into a bat, I will be
much more cautious.
>> Yes, assume all of them. So
when a dog gets rabies, they
obviously, you know, they're,
they, they exhibit very
abnormal behavior. And they
once they're symptomatic, they
die within about ten days. So
so that's why, you know, that's
why we have that observation
period for animals that are,
you know, dogs and cats that
might be rabid, but bats, you
can't tell by looking at them
whether they're rabid or not.
>> And it is these long, long
days where you're more likely
to see bats. That kind of late
dusk, you'll see them flying
around.
>> Yeah. So, yeah, so I wanted
to give you that 3 to 10%.
That's pretty significant,
especially given that rabies is
once you develop symptoms, it's
100% fatal. So basically 100%,
I mean, it may have been a as
close to 100% as you can get.
You can get exposed if you're
bitten or scratched by a bat.
Any if you have bare skin
contact with an infected bat or
saliva, it's possible to get
infected. If you've been. If
you're unsure if you've been
exposed to a bat, certainly
need to call us and we can help
determine. Our staff can
determine whether the Bat needs
to be. Whether. Whether the Bat
needs to be tested. We can also
help determine whether, you
know, along with the Bat
testing and depending on
whether the Bat is found or not,
whether you might need
post-exposure prophylaxis
vaccination. So so far this
year, three bats in Washington
have tested positive for rabies
a none in Clark County. Four
bats have tested positive in
Clackamas County in Oregon. So
this is basically I'm sharing
this information. Basically
remind people, especially
remind children never to touch
or handle bats, even dead ones,
because even dead ones, you
know, can be exposed that way
as well. We have information on
our on our website, including a
video that, that, you know, the
video is not available on our
website. Is that correct,
Marissa. Or it's on our YouTube
thank you page. Okay. It's on
the page now.
>> Great. Okay. Thank you for
that update. Anything else.
About it? All right. Then
moving on to the Public Health
Advisory Council report out.
>> A work session.
>> We're not done with our
agenda. No problem. Okay.
Welcome.
>> I don't have very much to
say because Phac has actually
not met since we last saw you.
>> Just state your name for.
>> The record. Sorry. Emily
Estes, I'm the vice chair of
the Public Health Advisory
Council. We have a little bit
of a scheduling quirk. So you
have two meetings, and then
we'll have two meetings. And we
last discussed the YWCA funding,
but we didn't get the
opportunity to report out on
any of the rest of our
discussion. So I also just
wanted to mention that the
membership had very positive
responses to Clark County's
place based work, which we also
heard about. And I also wanted
to share that the Phac has been
having ongoing conversations
about how to bring community
priorities before this, before
the Board of Health, for
example, at the last and
previous meeting and several
before it, the fact membership
have stated their highest
concerns being things like
emergency preparedness among
adult family homes and how
those plans are potentially
insufficient. And we've been
discussing how we want to set
priorities and bring them
forward. So that's on the
agenda of our next FAQ meeting,
and we will be reviewing a
decision making tool for how to
do that well as a group and
developing those priorities.
And since we're meeting in
person twice before we see you
next, I think we'll have a lot
of good things to share and
more to say then.
>> Thank you. We'll look
forward to that. And I do
recall some time ago there was
a presentation related to
training for adult family care
providers. So I think there was
there was some things that have
been done to recognize some of
the needs, but we'll look
forward to that. So thank you.
Thank you very much. Okay. Any
comments from the board? No
comments from the board. Okay.
That brings us to the end of
the agenda. And without
objection, we are adjourned.
We'll take a five, I think,
before we begin our sessions