Orange County Health

The largest outbreak of multiple-drug-resistant TB in a United States occurred at La Quinta High School in Westminster in 1993, when 17 students were diagnosed with active cases of the disease. However, these cases were not as serious as the strain reported in a new study by the World Health Organization. Roberta Maxwell, program manager for Orange County's pulmonary disease services, said each of the La Quinta cases was successfully treated.

With flu season on the way, Orange County residents can get low-cost vaccine through Nov. 16 at most Lucky and Sav-On Drugs stores in the county. Funds raised from the $10 charge for the shot will be shared by the Visiting Nurses Assn., a nonprofit group, and the private health-care provider Mollen Clinics, said Judie Decker, spokesperson for American Stores Co. The shots help prevent influenza, which kills more than 20,000 people a year and makes millions sick, Decker said.

State officials assured the Board of Supervisors Tuesday that public health in Orange County will be protected in spite of the abrupt transfer to Sacramento in June of the county's long-standing program of inspecting local X-ray and mammography machines. Supervisors agreed to let the state take over inspections but asked for updates every 30 days for the next six months.

Members of the Orange County Breast Cancer Coalition grilled health officials for 90 minutes Wednesday about the abrupt June closure of the county's X-ray and mammography inspection office and pledged to protest the action at a rally before Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.

Trudy R. Papson spent 11 years inspecting X-ray equipment for the county, earning honors in 1993 as an Orange County Woman of the Year. An imaging industry newsletter dubbed her "The Terminator" for her work closing substandard mammography centers. Monday morning, Papson interviewed for a new job with the county--as a dispatcher for animal control--only to learn by day's end she had not gotten the job. At least three of her colleagues also remain jobless.

Orange County has abruptly shut down its inspections of X-ray and mammography machines, leaving five inspectors jobless and stirring concern about the demise of a widely praised program. County officials last week asked the state to take over the 34-year-old radiological health program, which oversees inspections of several thousand X-ray and mammography machines and assists in emergency drills for the San Onofre nuclear power plant.

One in five children in Orange County has no medical insurance, the highest ratio of 12 areas surveyed nationwide, a new health care report states. The report by health advocacy group in Washington found that 19.1% of Orange County's children are uninsured, compared with a national average of 11.9%. The statistics show that even in a pocket of affluence, children are suffering, said Felix Schwarz, executive director of the Health Care Council of Orange County.

Health officials should establish an Orange County Office of AIDS to raise awareness of the disease and do a better job of coordinating education and prevention programs, the county grand jury recommended Wednesday.

Jose Amaro is known as "Pepe" at the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center in Garden Grove, where he works. When he goes out into the Latino community to give talks about AIDS, he dresses like a woman and transforms into "Pepa." "It's hard to bring people into the workshops we provide at the center because they don't feel comfortable coming in," said Amaro, an educator for the center's Latino outreach program Hermosa y Protegida--Spanish for "beautiful and protected."

At one Irvine school, the situation was lousier last fall than ever before--37 students and a teacher found with head lice, as opposed to the usual fewer than 10 cases in an entire school year. And some of the cases seemed especially hard to cure. One Irvine student's problem was so perpetual that he missed 25 school days. "Some kids keep coming back with lice," said school district nurse Sally Valentine, "and their parents are apparently religiously trying to treat the situation."