Communicable Diseases
Physicians and hospitals report communicable diseases as required by state law to the Health Department. Qualified Health Department staff provide investigation of the cases and report the communicable diseases to the state office which reports to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Providers can use the Reportable Disease Form to report a disease (See link below). You may fax this form with all lab work to a secure fax line at 606-509-5591.
You may also call 606.437.5500 or 606.509.5536 to report an infection.
If an outbreak of an illness occurs, we want you to be assured that the Pike County Health Department has a team ready to take care of you! The Epi-Rapid Response Team (ERRT) is comprised of public health professionals that are specifically trained to work during outbreak situations.
Proper handwashing is the best way to prevent the spread of infections! Encourage handwashing throughout the day, before fixing something to eat, and after using the bathroom.
Helpful Links
Community Education
Community Health Education is one of the keys to promoting healthy lifestyles and wellness for all ages. The Pike County Health Department offers a wide variety of community health programs that help provide our community with the tools to make informed decisions about their personal well-being. Educators are available to provide programs to schools, industries, civic organizations, and other agencies. Program topics include diet and nutrition, cardiovascular disease, cancer prevention, dental health, diabetes, and smoking cessation programs.
If you are interested in having a health department staff member present a program for your group or organization, please contact us.
Community Resources
Resources for the community in and around Pikeville, Kentucky.
| Resource | Number | |
|---|---|---|
| - | City of Pikeville | 606.437.5102 |
| - | Commission for Children(with special health care needs) | 800.594.7058 |
| - | Community Action Kentucky | 606.432.6235 |
| - | Community Based Services (SNAP) | 855.306.8959 |
| - | East Kentucky Dream Center | 606.766.3434 |
| - | Emergency Management Office(Includes 911 office, flood plain coordinator, etc.) | 606.432.6204 |
| - | Grace Fellowship Community Kitchen | 606.437.7244 |
| - | Helping Hand | 606.432.1349 |
| - | Homeless Shelter | 606.432.9442 |
| - | Housing Authority of Pikeville | 606.432.8124 |
| - | Kentucky Home Place | 606.433.0327 |
| - | Kentucky State Police | 606.433.7711 |
| - | Mountain Comprehensive Care(Includes rape crisis center) | 606.432.3143800.422.1060 |
| - | Mud Creek Clinic | 606.587.2200 |
| - | Pikeville City Police | 606.437.6236 |
| - | Pikeville Safe Place | 606.433.1574 |
| - | Poison Control Center | 800.722.5725 |
| - | Project CARATCoordinating and Assisting the Re-Use of Assistive Technology in Kentucky | 800.327.5287 |
| - | Protection and Permanency(Includes child and adult abuse and neglect, foster care and adoptions, etc.) | 606.433.7596 |
| - | Plumbing Inspector | 606.509.5530 |
| - | Sandy Valley Transportation | 606.433.1936 |
| - | Shelby Valley Clinic | 606.639.3135 |
Diabetes
Life with diabetes is a journey.
The paths you take can make the difference between sickness and health. The Pike County Health Department's Diabetes Management Program is committed to helping you choose the right path.
Diabetes makes it harder for your body to turn food into energy. It can cause sugar (glucose) to build up in the blood and high levels of sugar can damage nearly every part of your body.
Often the physical effects that uncontrolled diabetes has on your body are not evident until you experience complications such as heart attack, stroke, or a foot infection that does not heal.
When you have diabetes it is important to take care of yourself to prevent these complications.
How can we help you? The Pike County Health Department offers the following:
- Free diabetic management classes
- Appointments for one-on-one instruction with clients for diabetes management
- Diabetes presentation to community groups
- Diabetes prevention programs in schools
The Pike County Health Department is a member of the Pike County Diabetes Partnership. Visit them on Facebook.
Managing diabetes is a simple as A B C!
A1C below 7%
Blood pressure below 140/80
Cholesterol in check
Medical Reserve Corps (MRC)
In response to the outpouring of volunteer support in the days following September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush created the USA Freedom Corp. That national initiative is made up of several components among them AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, and Citizen Corps. The Medical Reserve Corps, MRC, is a component of the Citizen corps that best utilizes volunteers with a medical background. The Pike County Medical Reserve Corps was created as a joint venture of the Pike County Health Department and the Pike County Emergency Management in 2006. The MRC allows people who want to volunteer during emergencies the ability to be pre-trained and credentialed before an emergency occurs. Pike County MRC volunteers have been used in Tetanus clinics following flooding, during emergency preparedness exercises such as large scale drive thru flu shot clinics, and shelter operations. Volunteers have also been involved in public health initiatives that have involved getting children active in Pike County. These activities include the longest day of play, and community pool parties.
In the event of a large scale public health emergency such as pandemic influenza, or bio-terrorism public health will need a large number of volunteers to help support our efforts to restore the community to normalcy. Regardless of your background, medical, retired medical, or non medical, residents of Pike County are greatly needed to volunteer their time and skills in the event of a disaster or other public health emergency.
BenefitsVolunteering is a rewarding experience that offers a sense of purpose, a benefit to the community and an opportunity to meet new people. As a volunteer, you will be able to work directly with public health, emergency management and other agencies to help meet the needs of the community in a disaster, emergency event, or community education setting. Volunteers are provided information on MRC TRAIN, our training management system that provides CEU’s for many of the trainings on the website, as well as opportunities to get additional training and education.
Sign-upTo assist local health departments in organizing their volunteer efforts, the Kentucky Department for Public Health has created a link in Ready Op, a system used to communicate with partners and volunteers. The ReadyOp system also allows the Pike County Health Department the ability to contact volunteers by e-mail, telephone and text in the event they are needed to respond to an emergency.
Volunteers are required to register with Ready Op online. All information provided will be kept confidential. Volunteer information will only be available to MRC staff.
The Pike County MRC unit will verify the credentials of the volunteer (if applicable), complete the approval process, provide links to online training and provide volunteers training opportunities and informational updates on a regular basis.
This information outlines the process to become an active MRC volunteer. If you have any questions or difficulties, please contact us.
Part I : Registration and paperwork
Register in the Kentucky Department for Public Health Notification System: ReadyOp. Please be sure to enter all contact information including an email address.
- 1A. ReadyOP
After entering your contact information at the link above, a registration form will be sent to your email address. - 1B. Complete required MRC packet
This includes:- 1. The Medical Reserve Corps application
- 2. The MRC Confidentiality, Code of Conduct, Standard Operating Guidelines, Certification and Photo Authorization Form. Click here to review a copy of the MRC SOGs.
- 3. The background check authorization form. Please fill out the highlighted areas. There is no fee required.
- 4. The HIPAA Agreement form
- 5. The KYEM50 for Kentucky Emergency Management which ensures workers compensation coverage.
Part II : Online training
Several courses are available online through FEMA, we ask that you review the basic courses and take the quiz at the end. Once you have passed the quiz, you will be emailed a certificate which needs to be forwarded to the MRC coordinator to be placed in your file. There are many courses available online through KY TRAIN. The links to the basic courses are:- 2A. IS-100.b - An Introduction to the Incident Command System
- 2B. IS-700.a - National Incident Management System
- 2C. Create TRAIN account
- 2D. Complete the MRC Orientation course on TRAIN
- 3A. Pike County MRC orientation and ID badge Contact us to schedule an orientation and receive your MRC photo ID. You may also want to download and review our MRC Deployment Manual, which outlines the guidelines for any volunteers deployed to volunteer.
Preparedness
Emergencies can take many forms. From natural disasters such as flooding and ice storms, or naturally occurring or intentional communicable disease outbreaks such as pandemic influenza or bio-terrorism. These disasters can not only pose physical threats, but also have serious public health consequences. Since 2001, Kentucky's Department for Public Health (DPH) has received federal funds through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for public health emergency preparedness and planning.
Locally, a Public Health Preparedness Coordinator collaborates with emergency management, hospitals, American Red Cross, and other organizations to increase preparedness levels in the community. Plans have been developed, and are continually updated, to address both naturally occurring threats and bio-terrorism. Pike County Health Department and local and regional partners exercise preparedness plans regularly to practice these plans, and to revise them as needed so that the community is prepared in an actual emergency. These plans might include how to staff and supply shelters during a flood or ice storm or how to deliver life-saving medications after a bio-terrorist attack. Why wait? It is always better to be prepared in an emergency than to be without much needed supplies. What can you do to prepare?
Watch this video to learn how you can prepare!
Key steps to preparedness:
- Learn what your emergencies are. Do you live in an area prone to flooding or power outages? Do you depend on electricity for respirators or other life-saving equipment?
- Make a plan! Decide what supplies you need and where you will keep them. How will you evacuate, and if you and your family separate how you will all get back together? Don’t forget your pets!
- Stock food water and other supplies. Be sure to include enough for 3 to 7 days for everyone in your family. Don’t forget your pets!
- Practice your plan. Make sure everyone in your home knows the plan, and practice it regularly.
Tobacco
Each year more than 8,000 Kentuckians die of illnesses caused by tobacco use. Some die of lung cancer, while others fall victim to cardiovascular disease. Annually, Medicaid and Medicare costs exceed an estimated $1.2 billion for treatment of Kentuckians suffering smoking-related diseases and conditions. This equals $300 for each of the four million people living in Kentucky.
To help ease the toll tobacco takes on the health of Kentuckians, the state Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program has adopted the four Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) goals for reducing the negative health effects of tobacco use:
- Preventing the initiation of tobacco use among young people
- Promoting cessation among young people and adults
- Eliminating non-smokers exposure to environmental tobacco smoke
- Identifying and eliminating the disparities related to tobacco and its effects on different population groups
The program mission is to reduce preventable and premature deaths attributed to tobacco use by implementing programs to decrease tobacco use and exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. This includes local and statewide programs encouraging youth not to use tobacco products and helping those who want to quit in doing so.
If you smoke just one pack a day of name brand cigarettes, you spend about $1600 a year. What can you buy for yourself and your family for $1600?
Did you know that within minutes after you quit smoking your life will change? Here's how!
- within 20 minute, your blood pressure and pulse rate decrease
- within 8 hours, carbon monoxide levels in your blood return to normal
- after 1 day, your chance of heart attack begins to decrease
- after 2 days, you redevelop a better sense of smell and taste
- after 2 weeks to 3 months, your circulation improves and your lung function increases
- 1-9 months, coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue and shortness of breath decrease
- within 1 year, the likelihood of a heart attack is cut in half
The Freedom From Smoking program is an effective program that uses nicotine replacement therapy (i.e. patch, gum, lozenge), education, and social support to help participants become non-smokers. Participants will learn how to choose the most appropriate nicotine replacement product, coping strategies, and most importantly, how to prevent relapse. With the support group structure of the class, all participants get tips and advice from people who are going through many of the same issues. The classes consist of 8 one hour weekly sessions. Nicotine replacement therapy products are free when available. Participants are responsible for the cost of the product when unavailable.
Child Fatality Review
Children are not supposed to die. The death of a child is a great loss to family, friends and community and often represents unjust sufferings and unfulfilled promises. Understanding the circumstances causing a child’s death is one way to make sense of the tragedy and may help to prevent other deaths of children. A child’s death is a sentinel event and can be a marker in a community of the health and safety of children. Efforts to understand the entire spectrum of factors that lead to a death may help prevent other deaths, poor health outcomes, injury or disability in other children.
Child Fatality Review (CFR) is a process that works to understand child deaths in order to prevent harm to other children. It is a collaborative process that brings people together at a state or local level, from multiple disciplines, to share and discuss comprehensive information on the circumstances leading to the death of a child and the response to that death. These reviews can lead to action to prevent other deaths locally, at a state level and nationally.
Vital Statistics
Do you need a birth certificate, death certificate, marriage license, or divorce record? Kentucky's Vital Statistics Law, enacted by the General Assembly in 1910, provides for and legalizes the registration of births and deaths. The Office of Vital Statistics does not have records of births or deaths prior to 1911, except delayed records of births for those born before 1911 which have been established by affidavits and documentary evidence. Central registration of marriages and divorces began in Kentucky in June 1958. The Office of Vital Statistics does not have records of marriages or divorces prior to 1958.
Mail-in request You may download a printable application by clicking the appropriate link below. For more information please visit the Cabinet for Health and Family Services website at the following address: chfs.ky.gov/dph/vital.
These applications may also be picked up from our Pikeville office. Mail-in requests can take up to 30 days to receive and should be sent to: Vital Statistics, 275 East Main St 1E-A, Frankfort, KY 40621.
VS32 - Certificate of Stillbirth
VS230 - Certificate of Divorce/Marriage
Walk-in You may walk in to the Frankfort office and your request will be processed within an hour. A cheque or money-order is required at the time of your visit.
Telephone You may request certificates by calling 1.800.241.8322 and choosing Option 1. To use the call-in feature you must possess a major credit card. There is an extra charge for using the telephone service. The average processing time for a telephone order is four to five days in addition to postal delivery time.
Online You may access vital records from all 50 states visiting the VitalChek website at www.vitalchek.com. There is an additional charge for this service.
Verification of birth A verification of birth may be obtained from our Pikeville location. There is a $5 charge for this service. A verification of birth can only be used for government housing, employment and some insurances. These will not be accepted for school, a driver's license or as identification.
Syringe Exchange Program
What is a Syringe Exchange Program?
A program specifically designed for IV drug users to exchange dirty needles for clean needles. The primary purpose is to prevent the spread of diseases such as Hepatitis C and HIV. Syringes are disposed of in a safe method using the exchange program which reduces the number of needles found in the community.
Benefits of a Syringe Exchange Program:
- Reduces the incidence of infectious diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C
- Cost Effective
- Links participants to treatment and health care
- Provides safe needle disposal
- Saves Lives
Our syringe exchange is completely free.