Local health officers and health care leaders recommend wearing masks indoors

December 9, 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

Public Health – Seattle & King Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin joins other local health officers and health care leaders in recommending masking in indoor public spaces and other prevention measures given the high level of respiratory viruses circulating and stress on hospitals.

New case of measles in King County

January 21, 2023.Reading time 6 minutes.

Public Health – Seattle & King County is investigating a confirmed measles case in a King County resident, an adult female. The individual was at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Providence Swedish First Hill while infectious. Anyone who was at these locations within the time span that this person passed through may have been exposed to measles.

What to do if a rat comes up your toilet

January 18, 2023.Reading time 5 minutes.

A rat in a sewer pipe sniffs at tendrils of aroma. The rat pictures in a burger in a thought bubble.

Heavy rains and flooding can send more rats into the sewer system. Find out the simple steps to deal with a rat in your toilet.

Look up immunization rates at your neighborhood school and in King County

January 12, 2023.Reading time 8 minutes.

Children wearing backpacks, running and smiling in front of a school

What percentage of children in your child’s school are vaccinated against measles? How does your school district compare to others in King County? How have student immunization rates changed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic? Find this and more on Public Health’s School Immunizations Data Dashboard, recently updated to include data for the 2021-22 school year.

Public Health reflects on lessons learned from COVID-19 response in summary report

December 30, 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

Public Health – Seattle & King County has developed an After-Action Report summarizing key information from the first two years (January 2020 – January 2022) of the COVID-19 pandemic response.

Controlling an emerging fungal threat: The Partners for Patient Safety program

December 28, 2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

A new program underway in King County is aimed at early identification of a multi-drug resistant fungus called Candida auris or C. auris. The goal of the program is to mitigate the spread of these organisms in healthcare settings including those that serve the most vulnerable.

It May Not Be Cocaine: Fentanyl in White Powder in King County

December 27, 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

We are seeing an increase in fatal overdoses involving fentanyl in the form of white powder, even though fentanyl in pills remains the most common form. White powder fentanyl could easily be mistaken for other drugs, like cocaine, or pressed to look like rock cocaine. From our 2022 overdose report, among the overdose deaths where a fentanyl-substance was identified, the majority (64%) were linked to pills, but almost a quarter (23%) were linked to powders. Fentanyl is an extremely powerful opioid.