Orange County Health Care Agency

Alarmingly high infant mortality rates. Thousands of people dying every year from prostate cancer, diabetes and heart disease. A lack of access to basic medical care. In the first conference of its kind in Orange County, public health officials Thursday will address these and other social and health-related issues that impact the African American community.

Los Angeles County's retired director of health services will continue his work as a management consultant for the Orange County Health Care Agency next year despite questions raised Tuesday about his pay. Robert C. Gates, who retired from his Los Angeles County post in 1995, will be paid about $144,000 by Orange County, which also will pay his unemployment insurance, Social Security and workers' compensation.

Another mile of bacteria-tainted shoreline was closed by health officials Tuesday, extending to three miles the stretch of popular oceanfront now off-limits to swimmers and surfers at the peak of the season. After ocean water samples showed bacteria levels to be three times the state standard, the Orange County Health Care Agency declared an expanded area of contamination, from the mouth of the Santa Ana River jetty north to the Huntington Beach Pier.

Cutbacks in the county budget have prompted the Orange County Health Care Agency to contract with a private provider for mental health services for the homeless. The county-staffed Homeless Outreach Program stopped operating on July 1, according to Doug Barton, director of county mental health programs.

(New telephone listings as of April 1988) Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS education): (714) 834-8700 AIDS Surveillance Reporting: (714) 834-2198 AIDS testing-general information: (714) 834-3816 AZT Drug Program information: (714) 834-8406 Recorded AIDS testing information, clinic locations and hours: (714) 834-3175 Alcoholism: (714) 834-3919 Animal Assistance League (neutering/spaying information): (714) 978-7387 Birth Control/Family Planning: (714) 834-6991 California Children

The Orange County Hazardous Materials Team, administered by the county Health Care Agency's division of environmental health, responds to calls on chemical spills and other incidents involving hazardous materials. Sometimes the team goes to the site, and other times it advises citizens or local fire departments over the phone. There were 22 spills recorded in HAZMAT's response logs in August, with the Northwest area of the county chalking up the most spills at eight.

Just weeks after documenting the state's first death from West Nile virus, the Orange County Health Care Agency has added the disease to its list of reportable conditions, officials said Friday. "The aim is to increase the information we have about the cases that occur," said Howard Sutter, an agency spokesman. "As additional cases are reported, we want to see where they are occurring.

Fostering self-esteem and purpose within Orange County's youngest blacks will cure many of the health problems that are threatening the very survival of that population, the county's top health official said Thursday. "We have met the enemy and they is us," said Dr. Hugh F. Stallworth, Orange County's new public health officer, quoting the comic strip character Pogo.

The growing number of tuberculosis cases in Orange County may cause state funding for TB programs here to double this year, health officials said Thursday. The state Department of Health Services has already offered the Orange County Health Care Agency an additional $150,000, and may contribute another $275,000 within three weeks, state health officials said. If approved, the cash infusions would increase state contributions to the county agency's TB programs to about $905,000.