Health Officer

The Harford County Council has appointed Susan Kelly acting health officer and Dr. Yngvild Olsen as deputy health officer, effective Jan. 3. Kelly, a longtime department employee, had been deputy to Dr. Andrew Bernstein, who resigned this month amid a dispute over proposed cuts in the department's budget. County officials said they are likely to take a few months to hire Bernstein's replacement. "I feel confident with Ms. Kelly at the helm," said Billy Boniface, the council president.

Dr. John Leake Pitts, a retired pediatrician who during a long career in public health had been the acting Anne Arundel County health officer, died of cancer Wednesday at his Annapolis Roads home. He was 85. Born in Roanoke, Va., he was the son of John Leake Pitts Sr., a pharmacist, and Mary B. Allen, a homemaker and schoolteacher. As a young man he worked the soda fountain at his father's store. After attending Roanoke College, he graduated from the the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.

The Harford County Council is set to review two applications Tuesday night for a county health officer, a position that has been vacant since Tommy Thomas retired last year. The nomination takes on added importance because the department's acting health officer, Dr. Beverly Stump, is retiring at the end of this month. The council's personnel committee has narrowed the field to two physicians, said Council President Robert S. Wagner, who declined to elaborate further because it is a personnel issue.

Long workdays and extended commutes to Baltimore and Washington have left many Howard County residents with less time to exercise and fewer chances to cook at home, the county's top health official says, often causing them to choose restaurants with their larger food portions. The time-crunched lifestyle has caused obesity to remain a persistent health concern in one of Maryland's wealthiest counties, said Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, Howard's health officer. In less-affluent communities, obesity is often a result of fewer choices for affordable, healthier food.

William McConway Hiscock, a public health officer who helped write federal comprehensive health legislation in the 1960s, died Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Hospital of pancreatic cancer.Mr. Hiscock was a Medicaid Bureau program officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Care Financing Administration in Baltimore until his death last week. He was 71 and lived in Towson.In his 47-year career, Mr. Hiscock also worked in health-related positions, ranging from directing studies in public health training for the Yale University School of Medicine to being executive director of the Central Maryland Health Systems Agency Inc."

Two speakers will address women's health issues at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow at the monthly meeting of the Woman's Club of Linthicum Heights.Frances Phillips, a registered nurse and county health officer, will speak on the high incidence of cancer in our area and what the health department feels can be done about it.Linda Yergey, oncology clinical specialist at Harbor Hospital, will discuss cancer from the clinical aspect. There will be time for discussion after the presentations, particularly about what our community can do to help solve this problem.

The county health officer is looking for money to reopen a pediatric development clinic that became a casualty of state budget cuts more than a year ago.The clinic, which served about 80 children annually, provided complete neurological evaluations and follow-up care to children with behavioral problems or learning and developmental disabilities.Dr. Janet Neslen, the health officer, said she plans to approach the county commissioners to discuss funding for reopening the clinic.She said there is a significant need for its services.

Less than two months after presenting an ambitious program to expand mental health and substance abuse recovery programs, Harford County's health officer has resigned, reportedly stressing his disappointment with nearly $2 million in cuts to his agency's budget. In a letter to the County Council, which has not been made public, Dr. Andrew Bernstein expressed concerns with the state funding cuts, as well as the county's inability to make up the difference, officials said. Bernstein, whose department is funded through the state and county resources, left the county's employ, effective Jan. 2, and has not been available for comment.

Dr. Charles Gassaway Spicknall, former medical director of the old U.S. Public Health Hospital in Wyman Park who later was the health officer for Frederick County, died of a stroke Monday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 93. Born on Solomons Island and raised in Hyattsville, he attended Prince George's County public schools. He began his public health career after earning his medical degree in 1936 from the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington. In 1941, Dr. Spicknall was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Berlin as part of a group whose job was to inspect French and British prisoner-of-war camps under the Geneva Convention.

Carroll health officials are asking local merchants to request photo identification cards from anyone claiming to represent the Health Department, after reports that a woman misrepresented herself to local food establishments as a department employee.Merchants at Cranberry Mall in Westminster informed the health department that a woman visited food establishments there on Dec. 15, requesting discounts because of her position with the Health Department, said the acting county health officer, Larry L. Leitch.

Dr. Angela Wakhweya began her medical career in her native Uganda, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, where she saw many patients, friends and even some family members succumb to the deadly disease. The experience propelled her into the public health field, and eventually led her to Maryland, where she worked on infectious disease prevention at the state health department in Baltimore. Maryland ranks fourth in the nation in terms of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases.

Baltimore County plans to prohibit employees from smoking in government vehicles, including police cars and maintenance trucks, a county health official confirmed. Dr. Gregory Wm. Branch, the county health officer, recommended the move to county Administrative Officer Fred Homan last week, citing the health risks of secondhand smoke. "Secondhand smoke can remain in [homes and cars] through contaminated dust and surfaces, even if smoking took place days, weeks and even months earlier," Branch wrote in the letter obtained by The Baltimore Sun. "The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has concluded that secondhand smoke is an occupational carcinogen.

A strange observation about our nation is reflected in a recent health department presentation to the Harford County Council, namely that our country is so wealthy that poor people are often overweight. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but even as the national and local economies have been on the downswing, it seems as though people in Harford County aren't going hungry. In a recent report to the county council, the county's health officer, Susan Kelly, said 60 percent of people in Harford County are either overweight or obese, a number that's been on the upswing for more than a decade.

Howard County's unusual health access program for the uninsured is winning a much warmer reception for the coming budget year, after its county funding barely survived a 3-2 County Council vote last year. "I'm going to support it," Ellicott City Democrat Courtney Watson said at a Tuesday meeting, after praising the program's efforts to attract more private grants and complimenting the health department's expanded "Door to Health" electronic application program. Watson voted against using county money for the program last spring because she said public money should not be used to pay for health coaches to guide patients.

The Prince George's County Health Department is looking for individuals and animals who may have been in contact with a rabid fox that bit a visitor at Six Flags America in Bowie last Saturday. "Because rabies is a highly transmittable and treatable disease, the Health Department is taking all measures to locate any individuals that may have come in contact with this infected fox or any other infected animal," said health officer Dr. Donald Shell. The health department could not provide inforrmation about the visitor who was bitten.

A national ranking of general public health in all 24 of Maryland's jurisdictions has found Howard County the healthiest in the state, while Baltimore City is last. The study, released Wednesday, was done by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, using data from 2002-2008. A formula used different percentage weights assigned to health outcomes, which are the length and quality of people's lives in each locality. Also measured were health factors such as behavior, clinical care, social and economic circumstances and environmental factors.

After 22 years as Howard County's health officer, Dr. Joyce Boyd is retiring Feb. 1 to return to practicing pediatrics, she says."I've been thinking for several years that I wanted to go back to take care of babies and children and work with parents directly," the 61-year-old physician said. "Time was marching on."Boyd, who lives in Columbia with her husband, David, a surgeon, said she told County Executive James N. Robey about her plans after his election in November. A committee is seeking her replacement, according to the county public information office.

When Michelle McCoy attended River Hill High School, she went to a tanning salon every other week in winter. Then she noticed moles on her hip and arm. Now 21 and a student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, McCoy covers up in the sun, uses sunblock and worries about skin cancer. "I have a cousin who got skin cancer," McCoy said. She attended the news conference held by County Executive Ken Ulman and health officer Dr. Peter L. Beilenson on Tuesday to support their effort to make Howard the first county in Maryland to bar indoor tanning for anyone younger than 18. "Minors don't know what's good for them," she said, noting that she had once stayed in a tanning bed for 18 minutes and been burned.

Howard County's highly praised attempt to provide low-cost, preventive medical care for uninsured residents is off to a slower than expected start. Only about 200 people have joined since enrollment in Healthy Howard began last Oct. 1, county health officer Dr. Peter L. Beilenson said, falling short of the admittedly ambitious goal he set of signing up 2,000 members in the program's first year. "Enrollment is not where I hoped it would be," Beilenson admitted under critical questioning at a recent county council budget hearing.