County offers free flu vaccinations

Influenza activity has increased over the past month, and it is expected to continue in the coming weeks. To help protect the community, the Knox County Health Department will offer free flu vaccinations beginning today while supplies last.

“If you haven’t had a flu vaccine this season, it’s not too late,” said KCHD Director of Clinical Services Dr. Kelly Cooper. “In fact, the CDC recommends flu vaccination as long as the virus is circulating in the community. And, vaccination is still the best protection available from this virus and its potentially serious complications.”

Free flu vaccinations are available at KCHD’s main location, 140 Dameron Ave.; the West Clinic, 1028 Old Cedar Bluff Rd.; and Teague Clinic, 405 Dante Rd. Appointments can be made by calling 865-215-5070.

Open burning ban in effect for Knox

Due to severe drought conditions, Knox County Air Quality Management issued a mandatory immediate ban on open burning in Knox County Tuesday.

This ban includes people holding open burn permits, who are asked to postpone burning until further notice. New applications for permits have been suspended until the ban is lifted.

The ban includes campfires, bonfires and any other type of outdoor open burning.

"We sincerely appreciate the public's cooperation during this ban, which will remain in effect as long as conditions are unsafe for burning," AQM Director Lynne Liddington said in a statement. "We will notify the community as soon as we're able to lift the ban."

People may call 865-215-5900 or email health@knoxcounty.org with any questions about the open burning ban. AQM is a division of the Knox County Health Department. 

KaBOOM! City gets 'slide' grant

You never know where fun might strike.

KaBOOM! announced today that the City of Knoxville was selected as a $25,000 winner for its “Downtown Slides” project in the Play Everywhere Challenge, a $1 million national competition that will fund innovative ideas to make play easy, available, and fun for kids and families in cities across the nation.

The “Downtown Slides” project was selected as one of 50 winners out of a pool of more than 1,000 applications nationwide. KaBOOM! is a national non-profit dedicated to bringing balanced and active play into the daily lives of all kids, particularly those growing up in poverty.

A grant committee including representatives from the City, the Knox County Health Department, Knoxville Area Transit, Visit Knoxville, the Childhood Obesity Coalition, the Legacy Parks Foundation, Great Schools Partnership, SMG, and The Muse created a plan to build embankment slides within City infrastructure, taking advantage of Knoxville’s hilly topography.

The in-ground slides will be constructed adjacent to existing outdoor stairs throughout the city. The pilot project will be a slide located next to the stairs of the Civic Coliseum parking garage and is slated to be completed by the end of the year. Other sites will be selected and announced after seeking public input.

“The location of this project was chosen because it’s accessible by a large number of children,” said Joe Walsh, Director of Knoxville Parks and Recreation. “This slide will be near a trolley stop, the Coliseum and Cal Johnson Recreation Center. We’re always looking for creative ways to get kids’ attention to play, and we feel this project will do just that.”

The Play Everywhere Challenge was developed in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Target, Playworld, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

To view Knoxville’s “Downtown Slides” project on KaBOOM’s website, visit www.kaboom.org/playability/play_everywhere/gallery/downtown_slides.

Unwanted medication collection event

Members of the East Tennessee Regional Medication Collection Coalition will be on hand to collect and properly dispose of unwanted medicines Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Food City in Fountain City located at 4805 North Broadway near Adair Drive.

Medicines can only be dropped off at this location during the event. At all other times, Knox County residents can bring old or unused medicines to the Knoxville Police Department Safety Building at 800 Howard Baker Jr. Ave. The Safety Building is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

This event is sponsored by: the Knoxville Police Department, Knox County and City of Knoxville Solid Waste Offices, Knox County Health Department, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, UT Academy of Student Pharmacists, KUB, the Metropolitan Drug Commission, WBIR and WUOT.

For more information visit http://www.medicationcollection.org/.

Health Dept to offer free flu shots

The Knox County Health Department will begin offering free flue vaccinations to residents beginning Tuesday, Jan. 6, according to a release.

“If you haven’t had a flu vaccine, please get one now,” KCHD Director Dr. Martha Buchanan said in a written statement. “Even though one strain in the vaccine is slightly different from what’s currently circulating, we still recommend vaccination. It will provide protection from the other strains in the vaccine and can reduce the severity and duration of illness if you get sick, even preventing some flu-related hospitalizations and deaths.”

Starting tomorrow, those interested can receive free flu vaccinations at KCHD’s main location, 140 Dameron Ave.; the West Clinic, 1028 Old Cedar Bluff Rd.; and the Teague Clinic, 405 Dante Rd. Offices are open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Free vaccinations, including FluMist and the injectable version, are available while supplies last.

“In addition to vaccination, simple infection control measures can help keep our community, and especially the medically fragile, healthy,” said Buchanan.

Knox County HD prepping for Ebola

With news that the Ebola patient in the Dallas hospital has died, it's probably worth noting what the Knox County Heath Department is doing regarding preparation (which - knock on wood - we hopefully won't have to worry about).

Here's is the office's response, regarding input its received from state and federal officials:

The Knox County Health Department (KCHD) has received a great deal of guidance via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Health Alert Network advisories and CDC conference calls. Our hospitals and public health systems are able to manage such patients with the infectious disease resources, plans and protocols that were in place prior to the Ebola outbreak.  Since the Anthrax attacks in 2001, there have been crucial federal grant funds available in the form of Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Hospital Preparedness Programs to help local communities prepare for disease outbreaks and other medical emergency situations. KCHD has federal and local funding as well as dedicated staff to ensure our ability to respond to any public health threat.

At the state level, there have been numerous Tennessee Health Alert Network advisories sent to public health and hospital partners with information and guidance, including everything from triage guidance to personal protective equipment and infection control protocols for health care and EMS personnel. The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) has created a tabletop exercise for hospitals to utilize to work through the process of triaging, identifying and isolating a potential Ebola patient while assuring the personal safety of staff and others in the hospital. Hospitals throughout the state are having the tabletop exercises this week and next. TDH is gathering data from those exercises to determine where best to direct further education and guidance. 

On the local level, we are taking it a step further and hosting a combined tabletop exercise at the end of this month with our partners in the East Tennessee Regional Office of TDH - inviting public health, hospitals, EMS and other stakeholders to work through an Ebola scenario. We also conducted a training and orientation today for the Knox County Health Department’s Public Health Investigation Team.

Get rid of your pills on Saturday

Members of the Knoxville Police Department, the county's solid waste department, the county's health department and the East Tennessee Regional Medical Collection Coalition on Saturday will collect and dispose of unwanted medicines at two locations.

Folks can drop off any unwanted pills, etc. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. either Tennova North Knoxville Medical Center or the South Knox Walgreens at Chapman Highway and Moody Avenue.

Folks also can drop them off at the police department at 800 Howard Baker Jr. Avenue anytime.

Due to snow, more things closing

And a few more closing updates. Big Sexy Grider just checked in to let everyone know that the county's highway department is out right now, treating roads with salt and brine. He added that most of the trucks also are equipped with snow plows.

In addition, the Tazewell Pike Knox County Solid Waste Convenience Center is closing early; County Clerk Foster Arnett emailed in that his office closed at 3 p.m. today; and all health department locations are closed for the rest of the day.

On a side note, there were a bunch of knuckleheads on "the site" yesterday who didn't believe it would snow. But are you really surprised that those commentators were wrong? Yeah, didn't think so.

Until Grider sends in another update . . . .

Thanksgiving tips from the county

Starting to wonder if the spin crew over at the county has all that much to do. The latest? A news release on Thanksgiving safety tips. 

OK, to be fair the tips come from the health department, which from what I understand runs a pretty tight ship and since it's the holidays we give them the benefit of the doubt just this once.

Soooo, click right smack here for two pages of common sense stuff, which basically says wash your hands well, don't mix raw meats, use separate cutting boards for meats and other foods, make sure to cook the food, blah, blah, blah.

There's also some info about fire safety and some other stuff.

You've been warned.

Flu mist running low, no school visits

Not sure whether this merits posting on the ol' blog or not, but since most of the stuff doesn't what's one more. Heh.

Soooo, it seems some county officials expressed brief concern Wednesday that the health department didn't have enough money to give kids a second dose of the flu mist.

Not sure if this was just misinformation or what. But, Martha Buchanan, head honcho at the health department, told them that the first dose that the kids received awhile back is 90 percent effective. So, they should be OK.

However, the department doesn't have enough coin to visit local schools, so that's out for this year. You want the mist, go to the health department. (Drop my name, too. Might get you somewhere. Heh.)

Next year also could be an issue. Apparently, the federal dollars to support the misty program has dried up. (I'm not sure if this expense is included in the $7 million that the county will lose or not.)

Buchanan and Superintendent Jim McIntyre are expected to meet at some point to figure out a plan. They're supposed to look at “creative funding, grants or even corporate sponsorships.”

I like that last idea. Get your “Good Year” flu mist. Or whatever.

Corporate sponsorship.

Maybe Big Bill over at Pilot will get involved.

Naw, I doubt it. Too busy figuring out how to not get involved building local schools more like it.

Yeah, I went there.