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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1987)
page 5 CONGRATULATIONS! HEPATITIS OUTBREAK INFORMATION Jackie Provost, has been named the "Employee of the Quarter" at Chemawa Indian Health Service. Jackie was nominated by her fellow employees for the recognition, with the final selec tion made by Jim Edge, Service Unit Di rector. Jackie's name will be engraved on a plaque which will be placed in the waiting room, and a letter of accomoda tion will go . into her personnel file, according to Edge. Jackie is the first employee to be rec ognized under the new "Employee of the Quarter" program. NURSING PROGRAM The Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board is now taking applications for their 1987 NW Indian Nursing Re cruitment Program's six-week Sumer En richment Program (SEP) . The Program will' once again be held at Clark Col lege in Vancouver, Washington from Au gust 1 to September 12, 1987. Ten slots are available. Applicants must be Indian, reside in Oregon, Idaho, or Washington, and be acepted at a college in Oregon, Idaho or Washington. Appli cants will be judged on academic per formance, knowledge of current Indian health issues and commitment to the inprovement of Indian health, and on a letter of recommendation. The NW Indian Nursing Recruitment Pro gram provides for transportation to and from the training site, room and board, instructional fees and supplies and a small stipend for living expenses. The students will be involved in an intense six-week program of academics, nursing skills, and career exploration that is designed to prepare them for the rigors of nursing education. Each student spends one day per week with a nurse in a hospital, clinic, or private practice setting. Last year all but one student was able to view the birth of a baby. Prospective students may write to Tina Baldomaro, Secretary NW Indian Nursing Recruitment Program 123 2nd Ave., Suite 321 Portland, Oregon 97209 or call (503) 228-4185 for application packets. Completed application packets are due back no later than May 31, 1987. Se lection of 10 candidates and 5 alter nates will be made June 3. They will be notified June 5. The program is funded by: Health and Human Services Nursing Special Projects Grant and a supplemental grant from the Portland Area Office - Indian Health Service. WHAT IS HEPATITIS "A"? Hepatitis A (previously known as infec tious hepatitis) is an infection of the liver caused by a virus. Most cases are quite mild and may go unrecognized, especially in children. Adults con tract the disease less frequently but are more often ill. Death from hepati tis A is very rare, but disability in adults is common: In 1979, the average cost of an attack of hepatitis A in adults was about $1,000 for medical care and lost salary. WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS? If symptoms occur they may begin 2-6 weeks after exposure (the average time is 4 weeks) . Symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, vom iting, fatigue, pain in right upper abdomen, dark urine, light-colored stool, jaundice (yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes) . In people who have no symptoms at all; the presence of the disease-producing virus is de tectable only by specific blood tests. HOW IS IT SPREAD? Hepatitis A is spread primarily through the fecal-oral route: exposure to the virus in an infected person's stool di- illness. Because individuals may be more or less severely affected with the disease, medical advice may not be the same for each patient. 5. To protect their own health, persons with hepatitis A should resume activity only after being cleared by their phy sician. rectly (as a parent or day care worker diapering an infected infant) or through uncooked foods contaminated by the patient after inadequate hand-washing. Open water can be contaminated with sewage, depositing virus on shell fish. Occasionally, improperly con structed or maintained water supply systems may become contaminated and spread the virus widely. Hepatitis A may also be sexually transmitted. HOW LONG IS A PERSON WITH HEPATITIS A INFECTIOUS? The infectious period of a hepatitis A patient is from two weeks before symp toms appear to two weeks after. A pa tient is most infectious just before -symptoms appear. WHAT IS. THE TREATMENT? 1. The disease must be allowed to run its course, . since no medicine can cure hepatitis A. i 2. Most patients recover completely without hospitalizations, but convales cence may take several weeks. 3. Some of the symptoms, such as vomit ing, itching, and pain can be relieved with medicine. Consult your physician for advice on medication which you can safely take when you have hepatitis. 4. Most physicians advise persons with hepatitis to eat a balanced diet or a high carbohydrate diet, to rest, and to avoid alcohol until recovered from the HOW IS HEPATITIS A PREVENTED? 1. Immune globulin should be given to household contacts, sexual contacts, and those for whom the patient prepared meals while heshe was infectious. Im mune globulin is not 100 effective when given after exposure but even if the person receiving it develops hepa titis A, the disease is usually less severe and less infectious. 2. As there are several kinds of hepa titis with different recommendations for each, many health departments re quest that a specific test to identify the virus be done in order to take ap propriate preventive steps. 3. Persons with hepatitis A should not handle or prepare food for others, work in day care centers, or health care facilities. 4. Sexual intercourse should be avoided with a patient while heshe is infec tious. 5. Good hand-washing should be prac ticed after using the toilet, diapering children, emptying bed pans, cleaning toilets, providing personal care, or before preparing food. 6. Persons in contact with hepatitis A cases will not be able to donate blood for at least 6 months by American Red Cross regulations. CAUTION!!! NO HONEY DURING YOUR BABY'S FIRST YEAR1 1 ! Infant Botulism is a special form of botulism that affects the nervous sys tems of only young babies. The disease is caused by spores of the botulism bacteria that may be contained in honey, and the main symptoms are those of muscle paralysis. CALL YOUR DOCTOR RIGHT AWAY IF: 1) Your healthy baby is too weak to suck, has a feeble cry, or shallow breathing. 2) The baby's arms and legs become weak. 3) The baby's head becomes floppy be cause the neck is weak. If a baby is thought to have Infant Botulism it will have to be hospital ized, often in an intensive care unit. The average cost per day is approxi mately $1,500.00. To be safe, rather than sorry: DO NOT add honey to your baby's food, water, or formula. DO NOT dip your baby's pacifier in honey. DO NOT give your baby honey as a sweetener or medicine. Remember, honey is OK for older chil dren and adults but NOT for infants under one year of age.
