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CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) The public will have an opportunity to view North Dakota’s new Mobile Medical Unit on Tuesday, October 20 during the City-County Health District’s open house from 3-6 p.m.
The North Dakota Department of Health was the recipient of this rolling emergency room when Minnesota offered the unit to neighboring states after their health department determined they no longer needed it. North Dakota received it free in mid-May of this year, with the arrangement that it be shared with neighboring states when needed and not in use in our state.
The unit is a retrofitted semitrailer with eight fully functional emergency stations and the capacity for up to 16 patients, according to Tim Wiedrich, chief of NDDoT’s emergency preparedness and response section.
The Mobile Medical Unit will be set up in the city parking lot located between City-County Health and the post office.
The public is invited to view the unit and tour CCHD’s new facility between 3-6 p.m. Displays will be set up and visitors may opt to receive flu or other immunizations during this time.
Also during the open house there will free colorectal cancer screening test kits are being offered to people ages 50-75 who have not had a colonoscopy in the past 10 years or a fecal/occult screening in the past year. Also available will be free blood pressure checks for all ages and free Hepatitis C screenings for baby boomers (born 1946-64). Visitors can complete the tour with food demonstrations and a healthy snack. A drawing will be held for several prizes.
City-County Health District staff will be conducting free screenings during their open house Tuesday, October 20, from 3-6 p.m. This is a simple finger stick blood test that will be analyzed on-site during the event.
Others who should be tested at some point (but not during the open house event) include current and past injection drug users, those who received donated blood or organs before 1992, those on hemodialysis and those born to a mother with hepatitis C.
In North Dakota and across the U.S., there has been such a large increase in hepatitis C among injection drug users under 30 that it is considered an epidemic, according to a news release from the North Dakota Department of Health (NDDoH) earlier this year.
Chronic hepatitis is a viral condition that affects the liver, and is the leading cause of liver cancer. Many people do not experience symptoms of hepatitis C and do not know that they are infected because symptoms can take up to 30 years to develop. When symptoms do appear, they often are a sign of advanced liver disease. Symptoms of hepatitis C can include fever, fatigue, vomiting, abdominal pain and jaundice. As many as 75 percent of those infected with chronic hepatitis C do not know they are infected, according to Sarah Weninger, STD/HCV Program coordinator with the NDDoH.
As many as 70 to 80 percent of all people who have hepatitis C will develop long-term infections. However, once the infection is identified, treatment options are available, and the earlier the diagnosis, the better the treatment options.