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 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.”