We’re in the heart of the holiday season, people are going on vacation. They’re gathering with friends in homes, bars, restaurants; maybe seeing shows in crowded Strip venues.
It really is a time for fun and relaxation.
And, unfortunately, it’s also a time for something we don’t want to think about after three years of COVID-19: disease. But the reality is, Nevada does seem to be something of a hotbed for communicable disease and infections.
“Really, some of this is kind of coming back, unfortunately maybe, to ‘normal,’” said Haley Blake, the communicable diseases supervisor at the Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD). “We saw a lot of case rates decline, during those years when COVID was our primary thing. And we’re starting to see an increase, now, in a lot of different diseases.”
One such disease is tuberculosis. In November, the Southern Nevada Health District reported a case of tuberculosis at a Palo Verde High School. Then, in December, the Health District revealed that one person with tuberculosis had visited 26 valley schools, prompting the SNHD to send letters to parents and staff warning them of exposure.
Yet, Blake said, there’s no reason to panic, since tuberculosis is treatable, and relatively rare. “Here in Nevada,” she said, “we average between 40 and 60 cases a year. It’s not gone, but it’s not very common.”
Other, more common infectious diseases, are also on the rise. In November, the CDC named Southern Nevada a “hotbed” for Candida auris. This is a yeast that can be resistant to antibiotics. In 2022, Nevada had 16% of all cases in the U.S. And since 2021, over 100 people here have died from it.
Brian Labus, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at UNLV’s School of Public Health, said that Candida auris poses the greatest risk for patients in hospital settings.
“The numbers have been pretty stable for the last year or so,” Labus said. “So it’s not like we’ve seen a big increase. But this is an ongoing problem for Southern Nevada, and it really comes down to infection prevention and putting a lot of effort into that in our medical facilities.”
Another fungal infection, valley fever is already here and it’s predicted to spread due to climate change, moving into Northern Nevada in about a decade.
And on the viral and bacterial side, Nevada ranks fifth in the nation with 17% of the nation’s HIV infections. And we have the fourth highest rate of sexually transmitted infections when taken as a whole. That’s HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis.
Dr. Jerry Cade, medical director at The LGBTQIA+ Center of Southern Nevada, explained that these numbers are the consequence of an imbalance of patients and physicians.
“We’re this growing population, and we’ve had a lot of trouble keeping up with the growth,” Cade said. “We need doctors. We have never been anywhere near what is recommended by any medical society for the number of doctors per patient. We’re always struggling to catch up … We’re getting there, but we just don’t have the healthcare infrastructure that a lot of other communities have.”
Guests: Brian Labus, assistant professor, UNLV’s School of Public Health; Dr. Jerry Cade, medical director, The LGBTQIA+ Center of Southern Nevada; Haley Blake, communicable diseases supervisor, Southern Nevada Health District
