The statistic is staggering. Nearly 80 million Americans are infected with some type of HPV, or human papillomavirus. That’s almost one-quarter of the country’s population.

What’s more, there are about 14 million new infections each year.

Here’s another statistic: Each year, HPV causes about 33,700 new cancers. And the HPV vaccine can prevent about 31,200, which is nearly 93 percent of them, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

HPV can evolve into cervical cancer in women as well as a variety of cancers in men.

The HPV vaccine, which is available at Monongalia County Health Department, is ideally is given to both girls and boys at around age 11 or 12, before they even become sexually active and have the opportunity catch HPV.

Getting the HPV vaccine is just one way to observe Cervical Health Awareness Month, which takes place in January.

In fact, the HPV vaccine helps prevent other types of cancers, including:

•    cancers of the vagina and vulva in women (in addition to cervical cancer);
•    cancers of the penis in men; and
•    cancers of the anus and back of the throat, including the base of the tongue and tonsils (oropharynx), in both women and men.

While the goal is to give the HPV vaccine to girls and boys at around ages 11 or 12, it can be administered up through the age of 46 to both women and men. Until last fall, the age limit was 26 but the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) broadened the range on Oct. 5, 2018.

The HPV vaccine is a great way to help children avoid these types of cancers when they become adults. Once a woman turns 21 at least through the age of 65, it’s also important for her to get screened for cervical cancer through the Pap test.

The Pap test looks for cellular changes in the cervix that could evolve into cancer. Woman with normal results generally should get the test every three years, although health care providers can offer a more specific schedule to suit each individual’s situation.

At the same time, the cells collected during the Pap test can be tested for HPV so that it can be monitored and treated.

In this day and age, there is no reason why any women should go without testing. To make things easier, MCHD Clinical Services is a participant in the West Virginia Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program.

The WVBCCSP provides clinical breast examinations, mammograms and Pap tests for eligible women, as well as diagnostic testing for women whose screening outcome is abnormal. The program helps woman who are uninsured or underinsured who meet income guidelines.

Because the early stages of cervical cancer often do not cause symptoms in women, these preventative measures are important to take. In the latter stages of the disease, a woman might experience bleeding or discharge that is not her period.

Other ways to lower the risk of cervical cancer is to avoid using tobacco products, use condoms during sex and limit the number of sexual partners.

Cervical cancer and others caused by HPV are very easy to prevent. Cervical cancer also can be detected early and often treated successfully. Follow these steps so you can be around to celebrate Cervical Health Awareness Month for years to come.

And to make an appointment for an HPV vaccine or a Pap test, call MCHD Clinical Services at 304-598-5119.

Money Magazine just named Morgantown the best place to live in West Virginia. WVU, not one but two highly-rated hospitals, the rail-trail, city parks, restaurants and lots of activities and entertainment help make our home very habitable.
 
Also, in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation County Health Rankings 2018 County Health Rankings for West Virginia, Monongalia County comes in No. 2—behind only Jefferson County in the Eastern Panhandle.

Clearly, in Monongalia County, we have a lot going for us.

Still, it could be better. West Virginia is Ground Zero for a nationwide opioid epidemic that took more than 70,000 lives in the U.S. in 2017, and Morgantown has its share of homelessness and drug users. During 2018, southern West Virginia saw an outbreak of Hepatitis A; now the number of cases in nearby Harrison County is close to 40. Monongalia County Health Department’s public health nurses went out into the community several times in 2018 to offer Hepatitis A vaccines to at-risk populations in a proactive measure to keep the outbreak from reaching us.

Another problem is that life expectancy in the United States has been declining since 2014, and a recent Associated Press story used West Virginia as an example of how these events often begin here 10 or 20 years earlier than in most other states.

According to the AP report, “West Virginia eclipses most other states in the percentage of people affected by diabetes, heart disease and obesity. It has had the nation’s highest rate of drug overdose deaths for years running. It also has the highest obesity rate and the highest rates of diabetes and high blood pressure. Adding to those woes is the highest suicide rate among states east of the Mississippi River.

“Earlier this fall, U.S. health officials released for the first time life expectancy predictions at a neighborhood level. An Associated Press analysis of the data found wide disparities in cities and towns. Among states, the AP found, Hawaii had the highest life expectancy. West Virginia was the second lowest, behind Mississippi.”

The story concentrated on southern West Virginia, which has been harder hit by these problems. As Dr. Lee B. Smith, executive director of Monongalia County Health Department and county officer notes from the County Health Rankings report, socioeconomic factors count for the large portion—40 percent—of circumstances that predict an individual’s health outcomes. That gives us an edge over the poorer counties in the southwest coalfields.

As for the rest of the factors, health behaviors—whether your drink, smoke, exercise, etc.—come in at 30 percent. Access to clinical care accounts for 20 percent, while your physical environment makes up the final 10 percent.

As we celebrate MCHD’s 90th anniversary this year, we also happen to be reaching out to the community with a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) survey.

This is an opportunity to tell us what you think are the biggest health-related problems in Monongalia County and what we can do to address them. If you could, please take 10 minutes to help us help you by taking the survey.

The survey will ask you to rank quality-of-life statements so we can gauge what residents think about the current state of Monongalia County as well as what is important to them.

MCHD will be busy in 2019. In addition to celebrating our 90th anniversary and performing our regular day-to-day activities providing immunizations, clinical exams, food worker and threat prep training, dental care and more to the community, we’ll also continue to be hard at work at the accreditation process that we began in 2017.

The process, through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), is a relatively new goal for health departments. Not only will the CHNA allow us to better serve our clients, but it also will help us with this accreditation process.

So please celebrate the new year by taking 10 minutes to help us make Monongalia County one of the best places to live in the entire country.

Building a new home? The Environmental Protection Agency has some suggestions on how to protect it from unsafe levels of radon. That's especially important in Monongalia County, where 1 in 5 homes have high levels of radon, compared to the national average of 1 in 15.

But even if you are living in an older home, there are still steps you can take to protect your family from radon. The first one is to have your home tested. The EPA encourages all homeowners to test their houses for radon.

Environmental Health staff members at the Monongalia County Health Department are nationally board-certified to conduct radon testing. A staff member will come to your home and leave a continuous monitoring device for 48 hours, and then return to collect it and read the results.

If the test shows radon levels to be 4.0 pCi/L, or picocuries per liter, or higher, mitigation can be done that will make your home safer. The average cost of mitigation is $1,500.

While every home should be tested for radon at least every two years—and more often after a renovation, mitigation or certain other occurrences—residents of Morgantown and surrounding areas should really heed this advice.

Why is radon bad? It is the second-leading cause of lung cancer after smoking cigarettes. About 21,000 deaths occur each year from radon-induced lung cancer. And smokers who have a high radon content in their homes are even in more danger.

Radon can be a problem year-round, but once the cold rolls around during the winter, houses tend to be more closed-up with less ventilation, which can make a high radon situation even worse. It's no coincidence that January is National Radon Action Month, which is a great time to highlight the dangers of radon as well as the simple measures to detect and protect homes against this gas.

The EPA released the National Radon Action Plan in November 2015. The plan represents a collaborative effort among 11 organizations dedicated to eliminating avoidable radon-induced lung cancer in the United States. Led by the American Lung Association, the plan requires cooperation to incorporate radon testing and mitigation in the purchasing, financing, constructing and renovating of homes and other buildings.

The goal is to reduce radon risk in 5 million homes and save 3,200 lives by 2020—which, of course, is just around the corner now. eopa ra

Do your part to help achieve that goal and keep your family safe at the same time. You can set up a test by calling MCHD Environmental Health at 304-598-5131 or you can request a test online.

And if you want to read more about radon, the EPA’s website is a wellspring of information, providing sites on radon in general as well as the National Radon Action Plan.

Do the research. Make the call. And rest easy in 2019 in what should be the cozy fortress that is your home.