Wayland, Winfield could see an immunization clinic in the future

BY KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

An immunization clinic may be coming to cities of Wayland and Winfield in the near future.

Travis Johnson, community health director, told the Henry County Board of Health Tuesday over lunch that the public health department was working to expand the reach of its immunization clinic. Johnson said the thought behind expanding the immunization clinic was to reach kids that, for whatever reason, were not receiving their immunizations and also to just make it a little easier for those families that were having to bring their children all the way to Mt. Pleasant for their shots.

The immunization clinics will correlate with Henry County Health Center guided clinics in Wayland and Winfield. Both clinics are open two-and-a-half days a week.

?We will be offering, twice a month, (which) is our tentative plan, an immunization clinic (during) an afternoon in those clinics,? said Johnson.

The immunization clinics would occur on the days the physicians are out of the clinic and would be in the late afternoon, for two or three hours.

?Our thoughts are on Monday we would be in Winfield and Tuesday we would be in Wayland,? Johnson said of the tentative plan. ?Hopefully this will make it easier for residents in the Winfield ? Wayland area.?

Johnson said staff is currently working on the logistics of the clinic and how to transport the immunizations.

?That?s a really good outreach,? commented Rose Lauer, board president.

During the meeting, the board also approved the Emergency Response Multi-Year Plan Agreement. The plan had originally allocated federal dollars to states, which was then earmarked for each Iowa counties, for dealing with the Ebola virus. ?They came out with (money) that was tied to Ebola funds. We have those Ebola funds, and it doesn?t have to be Ebola, it could be spent or allocated for other highly infectious disease response mitigation until June 30, 2017.

As the threat of the Ebola Virus has waned and the Zika Virus has become a more immediate disease, the amendment would change those federal funds from Ebola to Zika response money. ?We started off with a contract amount of $8,396, and they are reducing that down by $2,080, that?s the impact of that reduction for Zika Virus and the money being spent at the federal level,? explained Johnson. ?So, instead of taking money from our regular emergency preparedness dollars, they are taking it from this additional Ebola dollars.?

Besides approving the Emergency Response amendment, the board also approved the Fiscal Year 2017 Local Public Health Association grant and the emergency preparedness program consultant services contract. The emergency preparedness program contract was for $5,060.

The next meeting of the Henry County Board of Health will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016, at 12:30 p.m., at the Henry County Health Center.