Health district briefs for December 15, 2000

Friday, Dec. 15, 2000 | 11:14 a.m.

Triage centers approved on Strip

The Clark County Health District Board by consent agenda vote Thursday granted without discussion a waiver allowing ambulances on New Year's Eve to take people with minor injuries to triage areas instead of hospitals as they are contracted to do.

With 300,000 or more people expected on the Strip, Health officials hope to prevent hospitals from becoming overcrowded with injuries that can otherwise be treated in the field.

Metro Police, local ambulance companies and health district officials will set up 25 patient pick-up sites along Las Vegas Boulevard from Sahara Avenue to Russell Road, staffed with various health care providers.

Ambulances will take the noncritically injured at those sites to one of three triage areas, urgent care centers or clinics, the health district said.

Rats confused with squirrels

Following numerous sitings of what local residents believed to be deadly disease-carrying rats, Clark County Health District officials probed the matter and found that a number of people apparently can't tell a rat from a squirrel.

Health district staff officials told the Clark County Health District Board Thursday that while some of the rat sitings were verified -- less than six -- other sitings were determined to be ground squirrels, gophers, mice and other rodent species.

Of the confirmed sitings -- all in the south central part of the valley -- all six were the roof rat, which has been documented as existing in the Las Vegas area since 1990.

Rats and other rodents are a health concern because they carry the deadly plague and hantavirus. The health district has had a plague and hantavirus surveillance program since 1981.