Penny Walters

Penny Walters Director

Penny Walters, Director

Phone: (541) 889-7279

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It can lead to coughing up blood and just having a lot of difficulty breathing," Penny Walters with the Malheur County Health Department told KBCI Local 2 News.

While Walters says it is a serious disease, she also says it is rare.Malheur County has 1 to 2 cases a year, the state averages 3 cases per every 100,000 residents.So far 100 students and staff members at the school have been tested, with several of those tests coming back positive.But that doesn't mean they have active TB.

"Just a person that may be has come in contact with somebody, they have a positive skin test that tells us they have been exposed but their not sick, they don't have any symptoms, the disease is dormant, they can't make anybody sick," said Walters.

Penny Walters, Malheur County Health Dept. (541) 889-7279 xt 280

Director Penny Walters

Director Penny Walters

Penny Walters, director of the Malheur County Health Department, said the British firm manufactures about 50 percent of flu vaccine used in the United States.

Walters said the health department ordered its vaccine from another company and has received about one third of that order and is not sure if it will receive any more.However, she said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could pull vaccine from health care providers who already have it for redistribution elsewhere.

Penny Walters, who is an administrator with the Malheur County Health Department, said the teenager presented all the classic symptoms of West Nile.

"It was a younger person here in Malheur County, who showed up with some symptoms toward the end of August," Walters said."Basically he had all the real symptoms of what we would see with the West Nile: headache, high fever, neck stiffness, rash, and because of the fact we have had the birds and horses, and it looked like classic symptoms, they went ahead and tested him.We got the confirmation back yesterday that it was positive.He is doing well, and is back in school."

Walters said the results took a couple of weeks to be confirmed.

"They got the preliminary positive results back like on Wednesday," she said."A preliminary positive just says it is some type of encephalitis, we have to go through the public health lab to differentiate between other things that could cause meningitis.But this is West Nile virus."

Walters added other Malheur County residents have been tested for West Nile.

"We've been putting people on a waiting list," Penny Walters, health department director said."We have a huge waiting list," she said.

Initially receiving 500 doses of the flu vaccine, of the 1,500 doses, ordered, Walters said her department should get up to about 1,000 doses.Those 500 doses were dispensed through a voucher system, with local doctors giving them to patients they felt were most risk of getting the flu.However, she said there are people who received a voucher from a doctor for a shot who have yet to shown up to the health department.

In addition to the vaccine, Walters said the department has several hundred doses of the flu mist for people ages 5 to 49.

In addition, the state Department of Human Services released 4,000 doses of vaccine it had in stock, from which Malheur County received 210, Walters said, and those have been given to people on the waiting list, she said.

The national Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta is preparing to release a supply of vaccine.Walters said she does not know how much will be coming to Malheur County.Her department, along with local doctors, is now conducting a survey to determine what the need is in Malheur County.Once all figures are compiled, the CDC will send the vaccine to the state and the state will dispense it to the counties based on their surveys.

"We should be getting enough vaccine for people who are the highest risk," she said.

There have been no confirmed cases of flu, Walters said, but there are viruses going around which are not necessarily the flu.She said flu is characterized by a really quick on set of fever, with other pretty sever symptoms, she said.

If a person gets sick they should stay home and stay away from crowds of people, Walters said.

The first confirmed case of flu in Oregon, a man in Portland, was reported by the DHS Nov. 15.

Penny Walters, administrator for the Malheur County Health Department in Ontario, Ore., said Friday the department was informed of the case on March 11.
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Walters said about 100 students were tested, and that some of those tests came back positive.She said a positive result can mean a student was exposed.
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Walters said treating an active case of tuberculosis involves a regimen of four medications over a 9-month period.In the case of the high school student, Walters said she should be able to return to school after two weeks.

"The protocol is once a person is on medication for two weeks, they're considered not infectious anymore," she said.

Walters said it would take some time before health officials determined how the student contracted tuberculosis.