CLINICAL SERVICES

Sexual Health Clinic - The community nurses followed 63 cases of reportable sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) for the month of March.  Follow-up for reportable STI’s involve a combination of counselling and ensuring that the client and their contacts are properly treated.  The nurses also refer clients to many community resources in Windsor-Essex County and link them to other programs in the Health Unit.

Travel Clinic - The Travel Clinic is currently booking into the end of May for first assessments.  A total of 15 yellow fever vaccines were administered in March.  A second Public Health Nurse posting has been filled internally to meet the demand for Travel Clinic services and she will be transitioning shortly.

HEALTH INSPECTION

The Health Unit issued a boil water advisory for a small trailer park in the City of Windsor recently.  A service line within the park was damaged and possibly contaminated, and while this is considered internal plumbing by the MOE, a precautionary boil water advisory was issued to ensure the occupants safety.  The advisory was rescinded after satisfactory results.  A drinking water advisory was also issued on the Island of Pelee after a diesel fuel spill occurred.
 
The West Nile virus program will begin this month.  We will be trapping mosquitoes and picking up birds for the West Nile virus surveillance program and also submitting birds for Avian Influenza monitoring.

The Part 8 (private sewage systems) program is back in full swing.  We currently operate this program in the City of Windsor and the Towns of Amherstburg, Lakeshore, LaSalle, and Tecumseh.

The Food Safety program has been very busy with over 1,200 compliance inspections, 99 re-inspections and 104 HACCP audits completed to date.

INFECTIOUS DISEASE CONTROL

Tuberculosis - Since January 2007, the team has investigated three active cases of pulmonary TB disease.  The latest is a 37-year old man who came to Canada in 2001.  The team is investigating his close contacts and offering TB screening.

Infectious Disease - In the last four weeks, 13 cases of influenza A and one case of influenza B have been reported to the Health Unit.  The total confirmed cases of influenza for this flu season is 34 compared to 32 cases confirmed last season.  A 38-year old male was diagnosed with typhoid following a trip to India.  One household contact is a health care provider who was retracted from work until screening negative for typhoid.  There are no outbreaks in long term care facilities at this time.

Vaccine Preventable - The team is busy completing the second dose of Hepatitis B for the grade seven students.  Once completed, review of immunization questionnaires being returned by elementary students will begin.  The elementary school population is currently 48,852 and 44,000 students are adequately immunized or have exemption documents on file at the Health Unit.  This computes to a 90% completion rate. 

In 2006 the Health Unit distributed over $4,000,000 worth of provincially funded vaccine.  This is an increase of $2,000,000 since the introduction of the new provincially funded vaccines a couple of years ago.  The public health nurses continue to provide education and do cold chain inspections in physicians’ offices.

CHRONIC DISEASE AND INJURY PREVENTION

Tobacco
STOP Study Sessions - STOP Study - On March 7 and 8, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) delivered a series of sessions for those eligible to enter their Stop Smoking Therapy for Ontario Patients Study (STOP).  The Ministry of Health Promotion provided funding for the study.  The purpose of this study was to evaluate the methods and effectiveness of providing free Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) to smokers in the Windsor-Essex County area.  Over 13,000 people in other parts of Ontario have already participated in this study.  A 10-week supply of NRT (the patch, the gum or the inhaler) was provided free of charge to the participants.  Participants attended a three-hour session in which the study was explained and the role of NRT to quit smoking was discussed.  At the end of each session they were provided with a 10-week supply of the NRT of their choice.  The March 7 STOP sessions were hosted by the Health Unit.  Those on March 8 took place at the Canadian Mental Health Association.  All of these sessions were well attended, totalling more than 150 smokers who want to quit.  The study provided an excellent opportunity for local smokers to try NRT as a means to help them quit.  

Driven to Quit 2007 - Final registration figures for this years contest were 27,272, which surpassed the goal of 25,000 registrants for 2007.  In Windsor-Essex, registrations were 556, the highest in the southwest region.

Tobacco Enforcement - Since the beginning of 2007, there have been 267 calls to the Tobacco Hotline at the Health Unit.  Of these, 79 were complaints related to potential infractions under the Smoke Free Ontario Act (SFOA), all of which were assigned and investigated by an enforcement officer:
* 41 were complaints for smoking in a public place
* 27 for smoking in a workplace
* 10 were for complaints related to sale/supply to a minor
* 1 was a complaint related to a school.

So far in 2007, a total of 28 charges have been laid under the Act in Windsor-Essex.  Of these, 12 were laid against tobacco vendors in Windsor-Essex for the sale of tobacco to a minor in conjunction with our test shopper program.  During the March break, additional shifts of test shopping were added to our regular schedule to take advantage of the student’s availability as well as to visit the stores during daytime hours.

Ministry of Finance Joint Visits - The third round of joint visits between the Health Unit’s Tobacco Enforcement Officers and the Ministry of Finance Tobacco Tax Inspectors took place February 28 - March 2.  During the visits the Health Unit laid 13 charges under the SFOA and issued 10 notices of violations.  Ministry of Finance tax assessment totals issued for non-compliance in the area totalled approximately $45,000.

Workplace Wellness
Working Toward Wellness - A presentation on our Working Toward Wellness program was made at the Chamber of Commerce’s Breakfast Forum Series for Small Business.  Dr. Deborah Kane, from our Health Action Windsor-Essex Workplace Committee, started the presentation with a talk on work-life balance and workplace strategies that make for a healthier workplace.  Keith Simison and Kevin Morse then presented information on how small business can implement workplace wellness programs in their workplace.  This was then followed by a presentation by one of our award-winning workplaces, the John McGivney Children’s Centre, who explained why they started their program and how they have done it with many examples of their wellness program activities.  There were approximately 35-40 individuals in attendance.

Our next Executive Breakfast Series Forum is scheduled for 7:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30 at the Ciociaro Club.  The topic is Absence Prevention and Management: Making the Case.

Drive for Wellness at Ford - The first initiative entitled Keep Health in Mind was launched at the beginning of March.  The current initiative addresses the importance of achieving and maintaining positive mental health and how to deal effectively with mental illness.  The newsletter and brochure were mailed to all CAW/Ford employees and retirees.  Other initiative resources such as tip poster, employee contest, and electronic bulletins have been completed and distributed.  The website www.driveforwellness.ca will be launched after approval from the Steering Committee.  Many worksites are in the planning stages of their launch/kick-off events for the wellness program.

Respectfully submitted,
Deb Bennett, Director