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Letters to the EditorsRabies threat prompts review
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 3, 2000 Editor: Re: Take action against county health official, Charles Miller's Sept. 29 letter to the editor per the rabies emergency: Al Gray contacted all local and regional media as soon as information was received concerning a possible seventh exposed person to the rabid cat. Because we did not know who Diana Perez was at the time, the news releases stated that this person should contact herphysician or local health department. As stated in a news article, Ms. Perez lived in Tampa and went to a local hospital on Friday afternoon or evening and was told to go to the Hillsborough County Health Department on Monday morning. She called our office on Saturday at 5 p.m. We have an after-hours answering service that takes initial calls and is instructed to call our on-call nurse, who responds directly to the caller. The answering service has specific instructions as to when the nurse is to be contacted. Part of the instruction includes contacting our nurse if a communicable disease is being reported, which includes rabies. Our nurse had been alerted that she might receive a call from the exposed person. She would then provide specific instructions as to where she should go for evaluation and receive the vaccine if needed. The answering service did not call our nurse. Ms. Perez called Mr. Gray on Monday morning. We called the Hillsborough County Health Department and interceded to make sure they saw her as soon as possible. She is now receiving the post-exposure treatment. The answering service is taking action against the employee who did not call us. We, in turn, are reviewing our after-hour policies. I want to reassure Mr. Miller that my staff acted appropriately in taking action in this rabies investigation. Mr. Gray and his staff went door to door, covering all possible leads so that every exposed victim could be notified. All surrounding county health departments were notified. As information was received, Mr. Gray stayed at the health department until news releases were written and sent to all of the media contacts, often until 8 and 9 p.m. We responded to the situation as we were made aware and acted accordingly. I hope this resolves any concerns that Mr. Miller may have concerning actions taken by the health department.
Water supply, development a mismatchEditor: New development not good for citizens, Sept. 29 letter to the editor: Kudos to Tom McInnis of Spring Hill. I've had a thorn in my side for a long time regarding usage of our water. One-day-a-week sprinkling, and now maybe not at all. Is this fair? I ask, when they permit the building of 2,500 homes and a golf course on U.S. 41, Spring Hill, to use 500,000 to 1-million gallons of water a day, plus millions more for the new mall connected to Tampa Airport, is this fair? Like Mr. McInnis said, "Money seems to talk very loudly around here." I agree with him.
New health care ideas are neededEditor: Socialized medicine -- what a controversial term! Nobody wants it, but look what is happening to us. We're at the mercy of the managed health care providers who can cancel us at will and/or up our deductibles until we wonder what "insurance" means. Do they use certain counties as test cases for their terror when political and economic clout may not be as great, say, as in Miami? Things are not getting better; they are getting worse. Whatever the solution, it is time for new ideas in the health care system.
Report unfair to employer, employeesEditor: Re: Lab tech charged in animal neglect, Sept. 26 Hernando Times: I do not believe it was appropriate for your paper to mention the employer or position held by the individual mentioned in this article. This person's occupation or employer has nothing to do with any troubles or citations issued to her at her personal property. Just what did her occupation have to do with a story about animals? What did her place of employment have to do with undernourished animals? Could the answer be to sell newspapers by putting in bold letters "Lab tech"? I believe the Hernando Times owes the employer and the hundreds of other employees who work there an apology for associating us in this animal abuse article.
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