The Health Department’s efforts to stop a disease from spreading in Portland last winter is featured in one of the nation’s foremost health journals today.
“Shigellosis Outbreak Among Men who have Sex with Men and Homeless Persons - Oregon, 2015-2016” is in today’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The article, published by Multnomah County Health Department and Oregon Health Authority physicians and epidemiologists, traces the spread of shigella, a highly infectious bacteria that causes severe diarrhea.
Multnomah County public health first identified cases among Portland men who have sex with men in July 2015. Then, by interviewing people who became ill, they identified when the illness took an unexpected turn into a new population: women who reported being homeless.
A total of 103 people became ill statewide before the outbreak ended in early spring, with 46 people hospitalized and no reports of death.
The report traces how Multnomah County Health Department public health staff quickly notified area physicians about the disease spread and proper treatment. As the cases continued to emerge among the homeless, public health staff partnered with homeless outreach staff to hit the streets visiting shelters and encampments, distributing hand sanitizing wipes and alerting safety net providers.
“This is public health at its best,’’ said Dr. Jennifer Vines, Deputy Health Officer and co-author of the report. “It highlights how our public health system works to detect the spread of disease. Partnering with the Oregon Public Health Division and local outreach workers was instrumental in responding to this outbreak.”
“We came together as a community to get people living in encampments and shelters the information and care they needed,’’ said Marc Jolin, director of the Joint Office of Homeless Services. “We know people who are trying to survive outside are very vulnerable to illness and people scrambled to keep more people from becoming sick.”
Shigella, which is spread by getting infected feces in your mouth, has rarely been identified among people who are homeless. But it is seen worldwide in low-income countries where people face the same problems homeless people do: lack of sanitation and exposure to contaminated food and water.
“The short-term, we responded to the outbreak with education, treatment and supporting good hygiene, but long-term, access to housing and adequate sanitation is most important,’’ Dr. Vines said.
Read the full report here.