Iredell County, North Carolina Public Health Concerns - Nathan Craig

Public Health in Iredell County, North Carolina

Iredell County in North Carolina has a number of important health trends that they have noticed and are working to improve.  Norma Riffe, the director of public health development and health promotion shared with me that they have seen a trend in increasing rabies cases.  They are also working to decrease tobacco use, improve active living, eating healthily, and decrease teen sexual behavior.

1)      Mrs. Riffe explained to me that tobacco use is a large issue in public health for the country, and Iredell County is no exception.  Currently 18.5% of Iredell County residents report that they smoke.  But the efforts of the Public Health Department are winning the battle.  Their objective is that by 2015 the percentage of smokers will decrease by 3%.  They are currently working with Mitchell Community College in Statesville, NC to become a tobacco free school.

2)      An interesting trend that has developed which currently has no explanation of its rising occurrence is reported cases of rabies.  This has been one of the largest focuses of the public health department recently.  They have found that the frequency of rabies cases is higher in the northern part of the county according to their tracking map (see figure below).  Consequently, the county has distributed rabies alert flyers and information sheets reminding citizens of what rabies is and how they can keep themselves and their domestic pets from harm.  One way that the rabies virus is being combatted is by what is called “bait dropping.”  “Bait dropping” is releasing fish meal from aircraft that contains the rabies vaccination.  As wild animals, particularly skunks and raccoons, eat the bait they become immune to rabies.  

Some of the top health concerns of Iredell County are heart disease, diabetes, nutrition, physical exercise, substance abuse and misuse, healthy aging, and stroke.  All of these concerns have been addressed in two different major topics Iredell County is focusing on, active living and healthy eating.

3)      Active living and healthy eating go hand in hand.  Obesity is a health factor increasing risk of stroke, heart disease, and diabetes.  Iredell County currently remains just above the state average of obesity rates, 57.7 cases per 100,000 people compared to North Carolina’s 54.4.    Iredell County’s objective is to decrease the percentage of people that are physically inactive by 3%, from 22.5% to 19.5%.  Their plan of action is to implement an “Active Living Promotion Policy” and “Places to Get Physical Map” to obtain these results.

4)      To improve healthy eating in Iredell County they have set a goal to increase the percentage of people in Iredell County that eat five or more fruits and vegetables from 10% to 15%.  To accomplish this goal they are advertising the location and times of farmer’s markets to encourage more fruits and vegetables to be eaten.  They have contacted the largest employers of Iredell County and established to prepare for a “Fruits and Vegetables Promotion Policy” where these farmer’s markets will be listed on their websites.

5)      Lastly, another focus of the Iredell County Public Health Department is teen sexual behavior.  Currently, Iredell County’s teen pregnancy rate is 33.6 per 1,000 girls ages 15 to 17 while North Carolina’s is 30.6.  Respondents to the question, “At what age should children learn about sex?” polled: 5^th grade, 35.9%; 1^st to 4^th grade, 21.1%; 6^th grade, 18.3%; and 7^th grade, 9.6%.  To reduce the number of teen pregnancies Iredell-Statesville Schools are offering a teen pregnancy prevention program.   These have been some of the focuses of Iredell County Public Health trends and focuses.