West Virginia Bureau for Public Health

West Virginia health officials are encouraging providers to ensure their patients over six months old get flu vaccinations.

West Virginia's health officer says the flu outbreak has increased statewide and is expected to peak in a few weeks.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, state health officer and commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health, says flu activity is widespread in the state.

A Northern Panhandle pain doctor is suing two state government agencies after he was stripped of his medical license and his clinic was closed.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that Dr. Roland Chalifoux is suing the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health and a medical board. The suit states their actions forced him into debt and damaged his reputation.

The civil action filed in Marshall County Circuit Court seeks lost wages and damages.

State officials have kicked off a push at redefining the mission of public health in West Virginia.

The Bureau for Public Health held an initial meeting of the public health impact task force Wednesday.

  The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Bureau for Public Health, along with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, is investigating foam observed on the surface of the Coal River. 

According to a news release from DHHR Friday evening,  intakes at both Lincoln County Public Service District and City of St. Albans water systems have been closed. 

The DHHR says foam samples have been collected by Lincoln PSD and the Department of Environmental Protection. Testing of the samples is ongoing and initial results are expected this evening.

  State health officials are urging the public to take extra precautions before school starts next week to prevent the spread of the flu.

“As children return to school, West Virginia could see further increases in flu activity and influenza outbreaks in schools,” said Dr. Rahul Gupta, State Health Officer and Commissioner for the Bureau for Public Health.

Gupta was appointed to the position in late December and assumed the role at the beginning of the New Year.

  West Virginia public health officials say one strain of influenza is making an early appearance in the state.

As a result, the number of people seeking medical care for flu-like symptoms at West Virginia medical facilities is on the rise.

Shannon McBee is an epidemiologist and the influenza coordinator for the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health.

  A federal report says West Virginia public health officials weren't trained to respond to a January chemical spill along the Elk River.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the state Bureau for Public Health had no epidemiologists trained specifically to deal with chemical or natural disasters. Instead, those who focus on infectious diseases led the bureau's response to the spill Jan. 9 spill at Freedom Industries.

State health officials say they've confirmed West Virginia's first case of a nasty mosquito-borne virus.

  The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Bureau for Public Health says the case involved a person who traveled from western West Virginia to Haiti and became symptomatic when the person returned.

The Bureau for Public Health says it has sent letters to health departments and health care providers advising providers of the confirmed case along with clinical information and prevention messaging.   

State health officials are seeking patient data from physicians who might have treated people affected by the Jan. 9 chemical spill.

The Charleston spill contaminated 300,000 people's tap water in nine counties.

Officials from the Bureau for Public Health and West Virginia American Water released separate statements regarding Dr. Scott Simonton's testimony Wednesday to Joint Legislative Oversight Commission on State Water Resources, calling his remarks on the discovery of formaldehyde in the water of a Charleston restaurant "unfounded", "misleading", and "irresponsible."

Flu activity is widespread in West Virginia and a state epidemiologist says this year's season could be severe.
 
     Widespread activity means increases in flu-related outpatient visits, lab-confirmed flu cases and incidents of influenza outbreaks have been reported in at least half of the state's eight surveillance regions.
 

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, based on a letter sent to Secretary Karen Bowling from the CDC, is advising pregnant women in the West Virginia American Water service area affected by last week's chemical spill in the Elk River to drink bottled water.

A news release says the Health Department consulted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the CDC recommends pregnant women continue drinking bottled water until there are no longer detectable levels of the chemical in the water distribution system.