KCOY anchor’s daughter contracts Enterovirus D68

Thanks to Paula Lopez for alerting the public to Entero 68 in Santa Barbara.

Please notice that the Santa Barbara County Health Department still hasn’t put out a bulletin acknowledging Entero 68, but now they are forced to admit the presence of Entero 68. Our public health departments are “operating with minimum personnel and cannot report any infectious disease information that would ‘endanger a fragile group’ in the community”. This I heard directly from a SB Health Department employee.

When we do get information, it is very general and not helpful. For example, when they announced that the person in quarantine for drug resistant TB had fled, they said it was someone in Northern Santa Barbara County. News sources filled in the gaps. It was an undocumented worker with family in Santa Maria known to travel back and forth to Mexico.

Hence, acknowledging Entero 68 in the county might endanger a group of Central American children recently resettled to the area? The resettlement Feds won’t tell us where in California these 3000 kids went, but the evidence is in scientific articles in Medline(a medical database) that Entero 68 was common in their countries. Or do we have more Central American adults coming across the border into California illegally?

We can’t count on the CDCs or our own county health departments to keep us informed. It’s up to the individuals involved–doctors, patient families, and the media. Thanks again to Paula Lopez as the public wouldn’t know that Entero 68 has now moved from Ventura County to Santa Barbara.