Lack of City Health Inspector Jeopardizes Eagle Passans Public Health
By: Jose G. Landa, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc. Copyright 2015
Although the City of Eagle Pass City Council approved the creation of and funding for a City Health Inspector position for the 2014-2015 fiscal year budget, the City has failed to implement and hire a qualified City Health Inspector jeopardizing the public health of its citizens.
While the State of Texas has a State Health Department Inspector Office, the City of Eagle Pass and County of Maverick belong to the State’s Health Service Region 8, which includes 28 counties including Maverick, Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Calhoun, Comal, DeWitt, Dimmit, Edwards, Frio, Gillespie, Goliad, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Jackson, Karnes, Kendall, Kerr, Kinney, La Salle, Lavaca, Medina, Real, Uvalde, Val Verde, Victoria, Wilson, and Zavala counties.
Given the limited financial resources and personnel of the State’s Health Service Region 8, the inspection of public restaurants and businesses throughout the 28 counties is limited and mainly focused on the larger metropolitan areas instead of rural counties.
Currently, Maverick County has over 100 food establishments or restaurants which require following certain regulatory guidelines such as proper food handling, food cooking, food storage, and other regulations to avoid public health diseases or illnesses within society. Neither the City of Eagle Pass nor the County of Maverick have a full-time Health Inspector in the community, relying on the State’s Health Service Region 8 inspectors whose visits are few and irregular.
The lack of a City and County Health Inspectors raises the risk of local citizens from becoming contaminated by bacteria and food-related diseases and the possibility of a public health crisis.
In addition, the lack of a City and County Health Inspectors has caused the proliferation of many mobile food vendors within the community, potentially exposing the citizens to public health diseases.
According to a Texas State Health Department Service Region 8 2013 Yearly Summary Report, there were only 88 general sanitation and retail food inspections conducted in 2013 in Maverick County. The report further states that there were only 13 restaurant and 55 general sanitation inspections conducted.
The Region 8 Yearly Summary Report shows that there were at least 106 Salmonellosis cases reported in Maverick County from 2006 to 2013. The report shows that in 2006 there was only one case of Salmonellosis reported, 4 cases in 2007, 12 in 2008, 13 in 2009, 16 cases in 2010, 19 cases in 2011, 25 cases in 2012 and 17 cases of Salmonellosis in 2013. Generally, the number of cases have increased each year.
A 2014 Health Service Region 8 Summer Report shows that there were at least 12 cases of camplyobacteriosis and three cases of Salmonellosis reported to the DSHS from January 2014 to June 2014 in Maverick County.
During the same six months period there were at least 222 cases of Salmonellosis and 184 camplyobacteriosis cases reported in the 28 county areas that fall under the Texas Health Service Region 8.
The Health Service Region 8 2014 Annual Summary Report was not available for review as of press time.
At a January 6, 2015 meeting, the Eagle Pass City Council raised the issue of the City’s status on hiring a City Health Inspector with City Manager Gloria Barrientos. Barrientos reported that the job description for the Health Inspector position has been drafted and that the current city ordinance has to be reviewed and possibly updated and amended to fit in with the Health Inspector’s position and duties. “We will be working on this with the planning department and the legal department. We might have to create a Health Department and/or review which department it may fall under,” said Barrientos. City Council discussed with Barrientos certain issues necessary to implement this Health Inspector position and/or Health Department by creating or amending a city ordinance.
Six months later, City Council again raised the status of the City’s implementation and hiring of a City Health Inspector with City Manager Gloria Barrientos at a June 30, 2015 Workshop.
“There are a lot of issues and that position has been off and on, off and on the budget and that position needs, to be there. There are too many issues happening in Eagle Pass and in Maverick County and I believe we should take care of that,” said Mayor Ramsey English Cantu.
Barrientos stated that a city ordinance needed to be drafted and reviewed and that “We would need to address the ordinances to get this health inspector. Without the ordinances what would he be enforcing?,” asked Barrientos.
Mayor Cantu emphasized that it is a priority. “It is a big issue and we need to just buckle down and do what we need to do, have the ordinances drafted and presented to council for consideration and move forward. Because we’ve had way too many issues that have been reported and brought to my attention and it worries me that if the State officials aren’t doing something as far as health inspections on restaurants and in general, we need to do something about it,” said Mayor Cantu.
In 2012, the Health Service Region 8 Annual Report found 961 cases of notifiable diseases within Region 8, including Maverick County. Maverick County had 78 cases of notifiable diseases reported during 2012, ranking fourth in Region 8 with the most diseases reported. The most common diseases reported were Salmonellosis and Camplyobacteriosis.
Recently, local Medical Centers and Doctors have noted a significant increase in stomach related flus or illnesses among community residents. This has created a cause of concern among health care providers of a lack of health inspections within community food restaurants or establishments and the risk of causing a public health crisis.
The City Council has advised City Manager Gloria Barrientos, legal counsel, and administration to make it a priority to establish a City Health Inspector, Department, and city ordinance before a public health crisis happens in the community. Thousands of local residents public health is at risk and jeopardized every day that the City of Eagle Pass fails to approve the appropriate city ordinances, hire a City Health Inspector, and open a Health Department.
