December 2015 - Environmental Health Alumnus Co-Authors Article in the Journal of Environmental Health
Commander Joe Laco, an officer in the Division of Emergency Environmental Health Services of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), co-authored an article in the Journal of Environmental Health titled “Rodent Control and Public Health: A Description of Local Rodent Control Programs.” CDR Laco is an alumnus of the Master of Science Environmental Health program of the Department of Environmental Health in the College of Public Health. The article’s co-author, Lisa Brown, is a senior program analyst with the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). A reprint of the article is available on the CDC website.
In the article, CDR Laco and fellow author Lisa Brown, MPH, discuss the contribution rodents have made to epidemics such as the San Francisco bubonic plague to the 2012 Yosemite National Park hantavirus outbreak. Because of the potential hazard to public health, NACCHO and the CDC profiled nine rodent control programs across the nation within large local municipalities. The goal of the project was to understand the current capacity of local rodent control programs across the U.S. and identify best practices, challenges, and technical assistance needs. A comprehensive profile for each participating program along with an executive summary of the project is available from NACCHO’s vector-borne disease control page. Brown and CDR Laco conclude, “Framing rodent control as a public health issue and collaboration among public health professionals and their communities will help create long-term and more successful solutions to control rodent populations and keep rodent-borne diseases at bay.”
CDC’s Environmental Health Services Branch provides free tools and guidance, training, and research to prevent foodborne illnesses and outbreaks; protect water, particularly recreational water, and private wells; and improve the performance of environmental health programs and practitioners. Their resources are intended for environmental health practitioners and programs serving states, tribes, localities, and territories.