Communicable disease nurses provide help finding communicable disease testing (Including HIV, STDs, and TB), treatments, and assistance notifying individuals who have been exposed to HIV, STDs and TB about their risk and the need to get tested.

Communicable Disease Prevention offered at Grays Harbor County Public Health Department

Helps find communicable disease testing (Including HIV, STDs, and TB), treatments, and assistance notifying individuals who have been exposed.

Programs that identify individuals who have contracted tuberculosis by administering chest x-rays; the Mantoux test, the von Pirquet test or the Vollmer patch test, all of which determine the presence of a tuberculosis infection based on a local inflammatory reaction to a sample of the bacillus which has been injected or rubbed into the skin; or other screening tools.

Tuberculosis Screening

Programs that provide counseling services for individuals at risk for contracting or transmitting the HIV virus with the objective of supporting their ability to make behavior changes that will reduce their risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV. Counseling involves a personal risk assessment, development of a personalized action plan and the decision to seek an HIV test. Individuals who have a history of injection drug use, unprotected intercourse or sexual contact, sexual activity at a young age, multiple sex partners, sexually transmitted infection, and/or sex trade work are considered to be at high or increased risk and are targets for prevention counseling.

AIDS/HIV Prevention Counseling

Programs that issue bulletins or otherwise inform the public of conditions which are conducive to the development and spread of a specific communicable disease or which advise the public of an outbreak that puts them at risk.

Disease Control Advisories

Programs that identify individuals who have contracted gonorrhea, syphilis, genital herpes or other infections that are spread by sexual contact and diagnose their conditions. The procedure includes visual examinations, blood tests and analyses of discharge or samples taken from lesions.

Sexually Transmitted Infection Screening

Programs that offer HIV tests which are used to identify individuals who have been infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and are at risk for developing AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) or which are used to measure progression of the disease in people known to be infected. The most common HIV screening test is the enzyme immunoassay (EIA) which most frequently uses peripheral blood drawn from the arm or a finger as a sample, but can also be conducted using serum, oral fluids or urine. Repeatedly reactive EIA tests are confirmed using the Western blot or the immunofluorescence assay (IFA). The most common test that is used to measure disease progression is the PCR (polymeraise chain reaction) or viral load test. Many programs that provide HIV testing also provide pre-testing and post-test counseling which includes information about AIDS/HIV, reducing risks for HIV transmission, emotional support to help the individual deal with the testing process and test results, and information about and referral to other AIDS-related services.

HIV Testing

Programs that are responsible for locating and contacting individuals known to have been exposed to a contagious disease with the objective of informing them of their exposure, providing a medical examination to determine if they have contracted the disease and/or offering treatment, if necessary.

Contact Tracing/Partner Notification

Provides confidential services for at-risk people of all genders.  Services include diagnosis, treatment, prevention, education, PrEP and partner referrals.  HIV/AIDS program includes anonymous and confidential testing and counseling.

STD/AIDS/HIV - Sexually Transmitted Disease Program offered at Jefferson County Public Health Department

Provides confidential services for at-risk men and women.  Services include diagnosis, treatment, prevention, education, and partner referrals.  HIV/AIDS program includes anonymous and confidential testing and counseling.

Programs that provide comprehensive preventive, diagnostic and treatment services for people who have contracted gonorrhea, syphilis, genital herpes or another infection that is transmitted by sexual contact. Treatment usually involves an investigation of recent contacts of people who have been infected to stop the spread of the infection .

Sexually Transmitted Infection Treatment

Programs that control the occurrence of gonorrhea, syphilis, genital herpes and other infections that are transmitted by sexual contact by monitoring the incidence of the infections in the general population, investigating individual outbreaks, and identifying and screening recent contacts of people who are infected to stop the spread of infections.

Sexually Transmitted Infection Control

Programs that provide information regarding practices that reduce the risk of an individual contracting an infection, including AIDS, through sexual activity.