The West Virginia Department of Health has issued a public health warning because a number of larger events are expected to increase the number of Mountain State residents traveling for tourism during the summer months.
The warning reads: “Healthcare providers should maintain heightened awareness for travel-associated, emerging, and seasonal infectious diseases, including but not limited to measles, influenza, mpox, hepatitis A, dengue, chikungunya, and malaria. Increased travel and population movement may elevate the risk of disease importation and transmission.”
“The health warnings we do are HAN (Health Alert Network) alerts just as the CDC does HAN alerts when you are expecting a large, public health problem,” explained Howard Gamble, the administrator of the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department. “We had two HAN alerts go out near the end of May for Ebola because of reports we received, but this one that was distributed by the state’s health department anticipates some issues with season travel, holiday travel, and special event travel.
“Those situations could increase infectious disease rates in the in Ohio County as well as the other counties in West Virginia, and the alert lets healthcare providers, hospitals, and some of our first responders that they need to be prepared for potential issues,” he said. “It lets them know that it’s good to ask questions like did an individual travel internationally? Did they go to a large event?”
The state Health Department states that traveling to any one of several regional events along with the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Independence Day celebrations, and the 2026 National Scout Jamboree in Glen Jean, W.Va., could lead to the spreading of common and rare diseases
“The biggest issue when people get sick during international travel is that while it may only affect one or two people in the beginning, it’s likely they don’t know they’ve contracted something for a week or so after they return home and they unknowingly spread it,” Howard said. “We’ve seen that play itself out pretty often because you have no idea that you are spending certain germs.
“That’s why we need to stay on top of it as a health department, and that’s why we alert our laboratories and our healthcare providers to test and report as soon as they can so we can track it down,” he said. “It’s a good alert, but it’s more seasonal than it is we are seeing a specific problem. It is that time of year, and yes, we have some large events. The Boy Scout one is large for West Virginia, and so will be the Fourth of July here and throughout the state.”
Bug Tracking
When a person gets seriously sick, it is wise, the health administrator advises, to review the individual’s activities so warning others can be accomplished.
The masses learned that lesson during the coronavirus pandemic about five years ago.
“It’s the answers to specific questions about travel that let us know if we need to begin tracking their footsteps,” Gamble said. “The key is, as soon as those issues can get reported, county health departments can begin their tracking to make sure we don’t have multiple problems so we don’t miss an opportunity to slow down a disease rate.
“So, the alert is, ‘Hey, we’re going to have some large events not only in West Virginia but regionally as well as nationwide’, and yes, those individuals could come through West Virginia, come through our interstate system, and could have contact with our general public,” he said. “The HAN Alert is a way to tell people to be prepared, and yes, if necessary, test appropriately based upon international or some other kind of travel.”
The Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department offers residents a plethora of services, including medical testing, breast screenings, Narcan training and needle exchange programs, and a number of vaccinations for travel and disease prevention.
“A lot of the issues that we’re worried about right now are vaccine preventable, and measles is one and influenza is another. And, although we’re not seeing it here in the Northern Hemisphere right now, it is beginning to ramp up in the Southern Hemisphere,” Gamble reported. “But some of those are not vaccine preventable, like Ebola or others that are most often contracted during internationally travel.
“Some illnesses are very specific, and it’s this time of year that we begin to see some of those diseases pop up, and yes, even here in West Virginia. We have tracked chikungunya or malaria or dengue recently, and some of that is the result of people traveling abroad,” he added. “International not uncommon, and international travel ramps back up in the summer because people are back to traveling more again now that the pandemic is six years behind us.”
