Members Present: Commissioners: Mike Shelton, William J. Byrd and Mac McDowell; Barbara Saugen, WGH Commissioner; Patty Cohen, Mayor of Oak Harbor; Captain Susan B. Herrold, Commanding Officer of Naval Hospital Oak Harbor, Ex Officio Member; Roger S. Case, MD, Executive Secretary to the Board.

Call to Order: Chairman Mac McDowell called this Regular Session of the Island County Board of Health to order at 1:20 p.m.

Agenda: There were no additions or changes to the agenda.

Minutes: Commissioner Shelton moved that the minutes for the March 20, 2006 regular meeting and the minutes for the April 4, 2006 Special meeting be approved as written. Barbara Saugen seconded and the motion passed for the Chair to sign on behalf of the Board.

Presentation: WIC Annual Report – Dori Johnson, Health Department Staff, presented the 2005 WIC Annual Report to the Board. WIC, administered by the Island County Health Department, served 1,511 women, infants and children in Island County in 2005. WIC promotes healthy choices, and the WIC nutrition programs generated $503,866 to Island County grocery stores and $3,276 to Island County farmers in 2005. The Health Department’s WIC programs served 53% of infants born in 2005 in Island County. A short discussion of the Skagit County WIC Program’s role in supporting the Navy’s WIC clients ensued with a briefing of the history of how this evolved.

Health Department Report: Tim McDonald, Health Services Director, updated the Board on the communicable disease report through April and reminded the Board that all communicable disease starts out as one case. A communicable disease surveillance program starts with a single suspected case, which is investigated and confirmed. That case could lead to an outbreak, later to an epidemic and worst case to a pandemic, but initially, all begins with the single case.

Commissioner McDowell commented on the media’s attention to the possibility of pandemic flu. Carol McNeil, Nursing Director, commented that one of the messages received from the pandemic flu planning meeting held the prior week was to go home to local communities and start planning but without panic. Schools and businesses are urged to think about operations logistics if up to 40% of their workforce couldn’t or wouldn’t come to work.

Tim McDonald advised that the Island County Health Department is planning for possible contingencies. Memorandums of Understanding are being signed with key locations on Whidbey and Camano Islands for delivery of medications and for locations for staging clinics for dispensing of those medications. He reiterated that the Health Department is working hard on surveillance and epidemiology. Currently, we should all focus on what we can control: (1) hand washing; (2) cough etiquette and, (3) controlling your airspace by wearing a mask or keeping distance; (4) staying home from work if ill.

Public Input or Comments: There was no public input or public comment.

Adjourn: There being no further business, Commissioner McDowell adjourned the meeting at 2:04 p.m. The next Board of Health will be a Regular Meeting held on May 15, 2006.

 Submitted: Roger S. Case, MD, Executive Secretary to the Board

 Minutes approved this 15^th day of May 2006

ISLAND COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH

Wm. L. McDowell, Board Chair