Guthrie talks health care with regional health officials

Jun. 29--U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie and Dr. Jeffrey Howard, commissioner of the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services came to Owensboro on Friday to discuss health care issues with the heads of two regional health departments.

Guthrie and Howard met with officials from the Green River District and the Barren River District health departments. The broad-ranging discussion touched on a variety of issues, such as the measles vaccine and attempts by health departments to vaccinate rural people, with substance abuse disorders, against hepatitis.

Guthrie, who helped preside over hearings on measles outbreaks in the U.S. as part of the Energy and Commerce Committee's subcommittee on oversight and investigations, said Friday that "made up data" claiming the measles vaccine causes autism alarms parents and also distracts researchers.

"People love their kids," Guthrie said. "They just need the best information" on the importance of the measles vaccine, he said.

Measles was confirmed in two cases in the Barren River District Health Department region. Howard said the cases came from a family who had not vaccinated their children, although they had been vaccinated themselves and did not object to vaccinations. The family had traveled to a country with measles cases, he said.

Another communicable disease, hepatitis, was controlled in Louisville where outbreaks were first encountered, Howard said. But attempts to vaccinate people in rural Kentucky have been met with challenges.

"We were the first state that had a predominately rural spread" of hepatitis A, Howard said. Cases in rural areas occur largely among people with substance abuse disorders.

"Getting them in to get vaccinated in unbelievably hard," he said.

Clay Horton, director of the Green River District Health Department, said "the trick is trying to get people to agree to be vaccinated."

"I think a lot of it is they don't see it as an immediate need," Horton said.

Matthew Hunt, director of BRDHD, said substance abusers in rural areas can be hard to locate. The state has a task force that it sends to correctional facilities to offer vaccinations.

Guthrie talked briefly about government attempts to provide health care to children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Immigration officials at the border "are just overwhelmed" by the need, he said.

"Unfortunately, it took seven weeks to pass an appropriations bill" to provide $4.6 billion in spending for humanitarian aid at the border, Guthrie said.

The House passed the Senate's version of the aid bill Thursday night, sending it to President Trump.

James Mayse, 270-691-7303, [email protected], Twitter: @JamesMayse.

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