Public Health is All of Us

On today's episode, we focus on how to stop a disease outbreak before it starts.

Outbreaks of infectious diseases can be devastating for a community. An infectious disease can spread quickly, especially when a community lacks the protection of vaccines for a particular disease. Some recent examples include the new strain of ebola virus that spread very quickly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the recent outbreak of dengue fever in Florida.

Today, we share an interview with Sara McCall, the Communicable Disease Nursing Supervisor about a case of tuberculosis, also known as TB, in a Multnomah County middle school in 2025.

More info about tuberculosis (TB):

TB is caused by a bacteria. It is spread through the air from one person to another when someone who is sick with TB coughs, speaks or sings. People who breathe the germs into their lungs can become infected. Most people who have been exposed to TB will not become infected. A safe and simple skin or blood test can tell whether a person has been infected. TB disease can be treated and prevented with antibiotics.

TB is rarely spread in schools. People usually get infected as a result of close face-to-face contact for several hours with someone who has the disease – typically daily contact for weeks or months. You are not likely to get TB from someone walking in the hallway or from a brief conversation. Tuberculosis is not spread by sharing clothing, dishes, or drinking glasses. TB does not live on surfaces and is not spread through contact like shaking hands.

Tuberculosis was one of the leading causes of death in the United States throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. In fact, it was mainly TB that prompted the establishment of the public health movement in the early 1900s. The introduction of antibiotics like streptomycin in the 1940s and isoniazid in the 1950s dramatically reduced TB mortality. By the 1970s many sanatoriums that were established in the 1900s had closed as the disease became treatable. Despite this progress, TB resurged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, leading to renewed public health investment that has since brought U.S. case rates back down. However, drug-resistant TB and global disparities remain ongoing challenges. Globally, TB is the world's leading cause of death from a single infectious agent and among the top 10 causes of death (source: World Health Organization).

Cases of TB involve a massive set of public health resources including 6 or more months of treatment, repeated testing and monitoring, as well as directly observed therapy.

Public Health is All of Us is a podcast produced in collaboration with the Public Health Division of Multnomah County, Oregon. This podcast focuses on exploring and learning about public health in our community - why it matters, and what you need to know to keep yourself and your community safe, healthy and thriving. You can find us on Spotify, Apple podcasts, Google play or wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to like and subscribe so you can be the first to know whenever a new episode drops.

Music for this program: Friends of Yugen Jam Band (Track 3) Recorded at KBOO in April 2017; Maxim Novak - 01 Morning Rays Of The Sun (available on the Free Music Archive).

We hear a lot about vaccinations these days. But what exactly are vaccines? How do they work? And are there dangers of vaccinations that we should be aware of?

On this episode speak with an expert in the field to try to make sense of the world of vaccinations, and we hear from an elder in our community, Therese Vogel, who shares the story of her sister Nancy.

The goal of today's episode is to try to understand some of the conflicting information that's out there, to help all of us make the right choices for ourselves, our families and our communities.

Featured speakers:

Therese Vogel is a member of Grandparents for Vaccines. When she was born, there was no measles vaccine. As a result, her sister had an experience that she hopes other families can avoid.

Dr. Howard Chiou is the medical director for communicable diseases and immunizations for the Oregon Health Authority's Public Health Division.

'Public Health is All of Us' is produced by the Public Health Division of Multnomah County, Oregon. This podcast focuses on exploring and learning about public health in our community - why it matters, and what you need to know to keep yourself and your community safe, healthy and thriving. You can find us on Spotify, Apple podcasts, Google play or wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to like and subscribe so you can be the first to know whenever a new episode drops.

—--------------------

The Oregon Health Authority tracks the vaccination rates of all Oregon schools here.

Therese's sister Nancy at age 6:

Nancy (left) and Therese Vogel in Oregon.

Therese Vogel recording this interview, with a photo of her late sister Nancy next to her.

Music for this program: Friends of Yugen Jam Band (Track 3) Recorded at KBOO in April 2017 (available on the Free Music Archive)

On today's episode, we focus on WIC: the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.

WIC is a federally funded program that provides healthy foods, nutrition education and breastfeeding/chestfeeding support to low-income families in Multnomah County, and across the country.

In 2025, Multnomah County's WIC program served over twenty thousand people in four clinics. By the end of Fiscal Year 2026, County WIC clients will have received over eight and a half million dollars worth of healthy foods. This helps make sure the babies have sufficient nutrition and food security to make it to their fifth birthday healthy and thriving. The County has served the largest and most diverse WIC client base in Oregon for the last 52 years.

On this episode, we feature an interview with Multnomah County WIC Specialist Rocio Gutierrez, who tells us about the WIC program and about the grand opening of a new WIC clinic in the Rockwood neighborhood of Portland.

Public Health is All of Us is a brand new podcast produced by the Public Health Division in Multnomah County, Oregon. This podcast focuses on exploring and learning about public health in our community - why it matters, and what you need to know to keep yourself and your community safe, healthy and thriving.

So … what is public health?

It's a connected, community-based health system created by a century and a half of scientific knowledge, health education, vaccinations against preventable diseases and environmental protections to keep us safe and healthy.

In the late 1800s, scientific advances helped reveal the causes of many communicable diseases whose causes had previously been a mystery. These discoveries laid the foundation for the field of public health, laying the groundwork for the virtual eradication of diseases like smallpox, tuberculosis, malaria, measles, mumps, rubella and polio in the US. Thanks to vaccines that protect the population from certain diseases, and public health advances in clean water and air, many of the diseases that plagued people around the world and here in the US a century ago are nearly unheard of today.

In Multnomah County, which has the highest population of any county in Oregon, a robust public health system has worked to keep the population healthy and thriving. Even during the difficult years of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health workers in the county implemented contact tracing protocols and educated the local population on the best ways to stop the spread of the fast-moving, very contagious corona virus. Lessons learned from that period have been incorporated into a pandemic playbook that the County is ready to put into action if another virus like COVID begins to spread in the community.

Now, as we enter the second half of the 2020s, the Multnomah County Public Health Division is looking ahead with new leadership and a robust comprehensive plan to ensure the safety and health of the community in the years to come.

Music for this program: Friends of Yugen Jam Band (Track 3) Recorded at KBOO in April 2017 (available on the Free Music Archive)