Vaccinations important, Jefferson County health commissioner says
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STEUBENVILLE -- With the flu season starting to ramp up, staff and management at the Jefferson County General Health District figure to be busy for the next several weeks.
They’ll be offering flu shot clinics and events at several locations around the county.
“We do have a lot of flu shot clinics coming up. That’s our focus during October,” explained Andrew Henry, who has been the commissioner of the health district since 2021.
That’s important work, Henry told members of the Steubenville Rotary Club during Wednesday’s meeting, and the reason the health department is ramping up an information effort about the benefits of receiving the flu vaccination.
Last fall, the health district administered 332 flu vaccines, which represented a significant decrease from the 539 it had administered n the fall of 2024.
“We want to get that number at least back up to 400,” Henry said while speaking at the JeffCo Event Center. “That’s our goal -- that will be a 20 percent improvement. The numbers we are seeing in our area, unfortunately, are just characteristic -- it’s statewide and, really, nationwide.”
Henry explained that last year in Ohio, 44 percent of adults received a flu shot, which was below the 46 percent of adults in the United States who received one.
“That’s not far off of the national average, but we are seeing that decrease well below the 50 percent, and we’d like to see that get higher,” Henry said.
A Wheeling native, Henry has been a a resident of Steubenville since 2015, when he married his wife, Sara, a city native. The couple met while studying at West Liberty University. He began his career in the IT department at UPMC Trinity and became a physician practice manager after earning his master’s degree from Youngstown State University.
He’s involved in the community, coaching his sons in baseball and hockey, and is an active runner who competes in area road races.
Henry recently stepped down as the baseball coach at Catholic Central High School so he could spend more time with his family and better handle his work obligations.
The flu vaccine, he said, is just one of several that area residents should be talking with their personal care providers about. That list includes the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine; the pneumonia vaccine; and the shingles vaccine.
Henry said that while there has been a lot of concern about the growing number of measles cases being reported across the country, Jefferson County has not seen any positive cases. Harrison County has had one reported case, and Tuscarawas County has had 13 confirmed cases as of Sept. 16.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Oct. 1, there have been 144 confirmed cases in Ohio. In West Virginia, that number was two, while in Pennsylvania, it was 963. It’s expected that those numbers will be higher when updated figures are released.
Persons born before 1957, Henry explained, don’t need to worry about getting a measles shot -- according to the CDC, it’s assumed they had been exposed to the disease during their childhood, which would have given them immunity.
Adults born after 1957 and who don’t have evidence of immunity should get the two-dose MMR vaccination to be considered up to date.
Vaccination against pneumonia also is important, Henry explained -- especially for older persons.
“Naturally, as you age, your immune system doesn’t work as well as it once did, so you are more likely to have trouble fighting it off,” he said. “That’s why the CDC recommends it for adults 50 and older. Unlike flu season, there’s no such thing as pneumonia season, so if you and your doctor decide you need to have the vaccine, you can get it any time throughout the year.”
You can get the pneumonia and flu vaccinations at the same time, provided you get the shots in different arms, Henry explained.
“The good news with the pneumonia vaccine is that it’s not like the flu vaccine -- once you have had the shot, you won’t need it again. But, if you are 65 or older, you might want to talk with your physician and see if you need a second one,” he added.
The shingles vaccine also is important -- for those 50 and older, Henry said, adding individuals should discuss the vaccine with their doctor.
There are other areas the health district will be focusing on in the coming months, Henry said. Those will include the county’s infant mortality rate, which, at 9.8 percent, is one of the highest in the state. Overall, the infant mortality rate in Ohio stands at 6.9 percent.
“We want to be focused on trying to get connected with mothers early on in their pregnancy, because that was one of the largest areas we need improvement in,” Henry said. “We saw that it was roughly 39 percent of women who have prenatal care, which is really, really poor, considering that we have plenty of womens health clinics in the area. We really need to focus on catching these mothers early and making sure they’re getting the care they need so they can have a healthy pregnancy.”
Jefferson County, he added, has become involved with Ohio’s Store It Safe program. Established by the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the goal of the program is to prevent unintentional firearm injuries and teen suicides, as well as accidental harm from medications, cannabis and alcohol.
“We want to ensure we have that education out there, and that people are storing their firearms safely and have their medication stored safely away from adolescents,” Henry added. ”
City councils in Steubenville and Toronto already have pledged their support for the effort, with the Jefferson County commissioners to follow, he said.
While the program is active in many parts of the state, what makes it unique in this area is that it is based at the county level. In other parts of the state, it is generally a community- or a city-sponsored program.
County flu shot clinics will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at the Fall Senior Expo at the St. Florian Event Center; from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. to noon Friday at Youngstown State University-Steubenville; from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 14 at Edison High School; from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. during the Fall Festival at the Jefferson County Joint Vocational School; from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 26 at the health district’s Toronto office; and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 28 at the Ohio Valley Health Center’s health fair.