North Central Public Health District’s (NCPHD) Board of Health has appointed Martha McInnes, BSN, RN, as the organization’s new director.

Already this year, more people in Oregon have tested positive for pertussis than in any year since 2018. In the past month, several people in Hood River and Wasco counties tested positive for pertussis.

A passion for helping others, and seeing the life-changing work done in both the public health and non-profit sectors guided the career path of recently retired North Central Public Health District Director Shellie Campbell.

North Central Public Health District (NCPHD) is excited to partner with the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) at this year’s Wasco County Children’s Fair to educate the public about the dangers of lead poisoning. OHA is offering free, confidential lead screening for soil and children’s toys on May 18th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Children’s Fair at The Dalles City Park.

Van Tilburg has been the Health Officer for Hood River County Health Department for five years. “I love the challenge, the enthusiasm and the impact of public health,” he said. He now serves as health officer for both NCPHD and Hood River County.

A free, 2-day walk-in vaccine clinic is scheduled this Friday and Saturday, March 17 and 18, from 11 a.m. to 6  p.m. each day, at 523 E. 3rd St., The Dalles. 

The North Central Public Health District is set to hold a three-day COVID vaccine clinic, starting on Thursday, Oct. 13 at the former Griffith Motors building in Downtown The Dalles, 523 E. 3rd St.

For your convenience, we are offering drive-up service (no call necessary) one hour per day the week of July 25-29. Just pull up to the Annex C building, as you enter the parking lot at 419 E. 7th St. and someone will bring you a couple of boxes of self-tests.

New members of North Central Public Health District’s board of health include a former county commissioner from The Dalles, a former head of emergency services in Sherman County, and a retired science teacher who lives in Maupin.

In one stretch of the Delta surge, Dr. Tom Nichol has treated 17 patients in a row for COVID who were unvaccinated. Some of them died. It “was a really hard thing for me to see people marching on to die from this who would have survived if they’d had a vaccine.”

A Poke Could be Worth a Million Bucks. Vaccination rates are expected to increase with an announcement by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown of a $1 million lottery prize open to any Oregonian 18 and older with at least one dose of vaccine by June 27.

North Central Public Health District is now providing COVID-19 vaccines to those 80 and older.