Diseases in the News Mumps, Meningitis, Pandemic Influenza and other diseases in the news

Visit our Avian and Pandemic Influenza Site. Find the latest information on pandemic influenza.

People often take public health for granted in Saint Louis County: our drinking water will not make us ill; our restaurants and supermarkets will not poison us; we and our children will not catch fatal diseases from neighbors or school friends.

A thin shield - a fine web of public health practices and personal habits - protects us from the nasty, brutish and short life that has been the rule for so much of human history. Two important facets of the shield are communicable disease control and health education.

Communicable Disease Control services are headquartered at:

Saint Louis County CDC Services provide

• Year-'round immunization services for children and adults;
• Special Immunization services such as
  • Fall flu campaigns and other prevention campaigns as needed;
• General protection against a wide variety of communicable diseases;
• Control of outbreaks, containment of effects, tracking down contacts to be sure they're treated and to be sure the community is safe;
• Tuberculosis control services;
• Sexually transmitted disease control services;
• HIV counseling and testing including
  • the Metropolitan St. Louis AIDS Program;
• The refugee health program; and
• travel shots.

We also assure that communicable disease control measures are built into other County health and environmental services.

Your own acts make your County's communicable disease shield weaker or stronger.

• Get proper immunizations for yourself and your family. This builds your own shield against the diseases of the past. It also strengthens the "health of the herd" (pardon the analogy) of the entire County.

• Practice personal hygiene. Always. Hand washing is an essential part of home and community hygiene. It prevents the spread of a variety of diseases, including the increasingly common hepatitis A! Spitting and improper nose blowing aren't just social no-no's - they are prime methods of spreading communicable diseases. Until very recently, tuberculosis was a great killer of humanity - and it was spread mainly by these bad health habits.

• Practice sexual responsibility. Always. Abstinence spreads no diseases. Monogamy - two people being true to each other for life - spreads no communicable sexually-transmitted diseases.

• Practice safe food preparation and storage - keep it hot or keep it cold. Keep it clean.

• Vector Control - You can control diseases spread through rats, mosquitoes and flies - by denying them a place to breed and feed. Keep tight-fitting lids on trash to deny food to rats and flies. Don't let water stand in tires, ditches, buckets, etc. These are breeding sites for mosquitoes.

• Be a responsible pet owner. Be sure your dog or cat is immunized, tagged, and spayed or neutered.

• If you "catch" a communicable disease - do what's necessary to get well! Comply with your prescribed treatment regimen.

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