IN USE — According to Nursing Director Kylie Smogonovich, members of the public have already taken naloxone from the purple distribution box installed outside of the Jefferson County General Health District’s sixth-floor office in the Jefferson County Tower Building. -- Christopher Dacanay

STEUBENVILLE — Accreditation progress, cyclical disease data and a new naloxone distribution box were among items reported to the Jefferson County Board of Health Thursday.

Health Commissioner Andrew Henry told the board that the Jefferson County General Health District soon looks to fulfill necessary steps for achieving state-mandated Public Health Accreditation Board quality assurance — an effort that’s sapped staff’s time and energy over the past year.

“Last week, we were well on our way to knocking out the ten domains for accreditation,” Henry said. “As of this afternoon, we had eight out of 10 completely finished. We uploaded, we have two weeks left. And domain two is 53 percent and domain six is 31 percent, so even the two that we are not completely done with are in the process.”

Henry concluded his report — which was met with auditory wonderment from the board — by noting that a contract has been signed allowing “action items” to be addressed for the domains, if needed.

“Everyone’s really pulled together the last two months,” he added. “Everyone who has responsibility in their domains has pulled their weight. It takes a team, and a team effort it’s been.”

Earlier in the meeting, Henry noted that he appreciates how PHAB’s accreditation process “gives us a platform to showcase the great programs that we have in the community. We know there is plenty more we can do, but we are working well to serve Jefferson County.”

Later, Medical Director Dr. Janie Culp informed the board about certain diseases, the incidence rate of which appears to have a cyclical nature based on the seasons.

“A pretty good example of this — if you look at COVID-19 in January 2024, there were 372 positive tests,” Culp said. “February is 182, March is 60, April is 30 and it goes down until we start seeing that next bump that we usually seen in the fall. In August we had another 172, and in September we had 269 positive tests.

“I think this just illustrates the cycle part of these viruses that we see. They never go away, but they do go down during different times of the year.”

Culp noted that cases act similarly for whopping cough and influenza but not for sexually transmitted infections like chlamydia or gonorrhea, for which there is “no seasonal aspect.”

The board heard Culp read a written report from Nursing Director Kylie Smogonovich, which described how a new naloxone distribution box has been installed outside of the JCGHD’s sixth-floor office in the Jefferson County Tower Building.

That box is one of four newspaper stand-style boxes obtained by the JCGHD last year. Two of those boxes are available for local organizations to host, enabling free and targeted distribution of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone to the public. Smogonovich wrote that the JCGHD’s box has already had naloxone taken from it.

Smogonovich also reported that, come February, the Jefferson County Diaper Bank will have been open for a full year.

The bank currently serves 249 families, including 359 children. So far, 23,065 diapers have been dispensed out of the bank’s stores — filled through community donations.

“These diaper numbers, they’re staggering the amount of work you’ve put into this,” board member Terry Bell said. “It just proves, that’s’ what were’re supposed to be doing — taking care of the public, particularly the ones who need it.”

Additionally, Bell suggested that the area may not be prepared to address a carbon capture and sequestration disaster.

The environmental committee chair, Bell reported that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection — which he said issues regulates drilling for Class VI injection wells in West Virginia — has made public three permits for carbon capture wells in the local area, including in New Cumberland and Chester.

Bell said the permit holder, Tenaska, is looking for porous shale formations underground, in which to store carbon dioxide. Headquartered in Omaha, Neb., Tenaska plans to create a Tri-State CCS Hub with multiple wells across Carroll, Harrison and Jefferson counties in Ohio; Hancock and Marshall counties in West Virginia; and Washington County in Pennsylvania.

Bell asked Public Health Emergency Preparedness Director Rick Stead — following his own report — whether anyone in Ohio or surrounding states has been discussing carbon capture and sequestration.

When Stead answered “No,” Bell said, “So, if we would have an issue where there was a malfunction in that process of storing it underground, we’re not prepared, in other words.”

Bell noted a 2020 incident in Mississippi, where a landslide caused a carbon dioxide pipeline to break. Contents escaped into the air, leading to carbon dioxide poisoning that hospitalized 45 nearby individuals.

“I guess it’s best for me to say we’d better get prepared,” Bell said.

“We do have plans in place if events like that were to happen,” Stead replied, “whether it’s sheltering people, working with Jefferson County EMA, follow-up surveillance for long-term exposure in different things. It’s not a question of us not being prepared. We have plans in place in case a similar event occurred in Columbiana County.”

Carbon capture, in particular, is “really not being discussed, at least within (our region),” Stead added.In other business:

Smogonovich said that nursing staff member Danielle Czuchran, as part of the Get Vaccinated Ohio grant, is being scheduled to visit three local schools — Indian Creek, Bishop John King Mussio and Buckeye Local — and look at immunization records. The effort gives an insight into what vaccines children might be behind or missing out on.

Henry said that JCGHD directors will meet in February to revise Community Health Improvement Plan goals and objectives “to account for any barriers we’ve been facing or any challenges,” including priority points for maternal and child health, minus previously available Ohio Department of Health grant funding; mental health and substance use, reconsidering action steps; environmental health, revisiting the inspection fee, and healthy living, also reconsidering action steps.

Culp said that, of Amish individuals who participated in a recent influenza vaccine clinic, three children qualified for a second dose because of their age — two of the received that second dose around November and December. This is the same population that experienced a meningitis outbreak among its children last December and which JCGHD medical staff attended to with post-exposure treatment and, later, a voluntary meningitis vaccine clinic.

WIC Director Stephanie Chester reported that the program had its biennial management assessment in December. Overall, she said, the program “did well,” though it received four corrective actions for which she’s preparing responses.