Brandt Bettilyon

I called my Aunt in law who is Cristie Chesler works for the Utah department of health her title is program manager over the Tuberculosis Control and Refugee Health Program. She even talked to me about the opportunity for an internship in the future! So this assignment was beneficial on a couple levels.

One interesting trend she pointed out was the problem with TB and missionaries. What happens is that the missionaries don’t get screened when they come home and they develop TB that is antibiotic resistant. Which I found interesting it’s definitely a local trend due to all of the missionaries being sent out from here in Utah.

Another trend she pointed out was that Vaccine preventable diseases are a problem here, she made a specific point of Pertussis and the problem it causes when unimmunized adults don’t get there Tdap booster and then they get children who haven’t been fully immunized sick. She said that Utah has a problem of not vaccinating children.

She also mentioned the problem of STD’s especially Chlamydia, which she says has been a problem recently. It’s the highest STD in the State with most of the cases being on the Wasatch front especially in Salt Lake County. Most cases were in Females compared to Males. There has been a stark increase over the last decade part of which may be due to the increased amount of testing.

She made mention of the big impact that the Health Care Reform will have on AIDS and peoples ability to have access to the treatments which make AIDS more like a lifetime Chronic Disease instead of a death sentence. I looked up on the internet and the new health care reform will really help address the problem of AIDS since right now not many people have health insurance or coverage.

She also mentioned measles as well as a vaccine preventable disease that is a problem. I remember from my Infectious Disease class that Dr. Sowby had an article abut measles’s outbreak at my Jr. High. It’s included in the infamous MMR vaccine which caused a little uproar about vaccines. And for whatever reason here in Utah we have a problem with vaccinating our children.