Did you know that if you attend a WVU football game, a team from Monongalia County Health Department walks around the crowd and conducts scanning to look for radiation threats?
“It’s so sensitive that sometimes it will pick up people who have been treated recently for cancer,” Dr. Huggins said during a presentation Wednesday evening at the Morgantown High School Library.
And if you eat in a restaurant in Monongalia County, one of the health departments six or so sanitarians has inspected it — along with pools, hotels, motels, schools, tattoo studios and even the vendors at fairs and WVU games.
“And if there is a complaint, they are on it,” he said.
Monongalia County Health Department held its first of two town hall meetings on Wednesday in order to gather input and answer any questions members of the public might have. It’s part of a strategic plan that MCHD has been undergoing in order to look toward the future and add or tweak any services.
The second town hall meeting will be held at 6 p.m. today at Clay-Battelle High School in Blacksville. MCHD is also conducting a survey throughout the month of May that can be found on the health department’s social media, including Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter), using the handle @wvmchd. The survey is also available on MCHD’s website home page, monchd.org.
“MCHD has been working with Forge since July 2023 to create a strategic plan and will be implementing it over the next five years,” said executive director Anthony DeFelice. “It was apparent to the leadership that we needed a roadmap to take us from where we are today to where we want to be in the future.”
Dr. Huggins outlined the health department’s six programs: Clinical Services, Dentistry, Environmental Health, Infection Control & Disease Prevention, Threat Preparedness and MCHD WIC, or Women, Infants and Children, that MCHD operates in six counties.
He noted that MCHD is the only health department in the state to house a full-service dental office, one that offers state-of-the-art digital equipment, same-day crowns and even Botox for both therapeutic and cosmetic treatments. And Clinical Services provides free STI testing and treatment, free and low-cost birth control and vaccines.
He also discussed Smile Express, the health department’s mobile dentistry unit that visits schools in five counties as well as recovery and senior centers in Monongalia County.
Monongalia County Health Department was established in 1929 and has been at its current location, 453 Van Voorhis Road, since 1975.
“We hope that members of the Blacksville community and surrounding area will come to the town hall tonight to learn more about us and let us know what their needs are,” DeFelice said.
