Measles, Covid, and influenza remain health concerns nationwide and in the Four Corners area. Officials with the Montezuma County Department of Public Health gave an update on communicable diseases during their quarterly meeting Tuesday with the county commissioners, who were meeting as the Board of Health. County health director Bobbi Lock said Colorado has had 27 confirmed cases of measles as of the end of September. Fifteen hundred forty-four cases have been confirmed nationwide. Measles in Texas and New Mexico is slowing down, but Lock said Arizona is experiencing a number of cases, especially along the border of Utah and Mohave County. Arizona had 42 confirmed cases at September’s end. Lock said there have been three Covid outbreaks in residential settings in the local community in the past quarter, as well as multiple individual cases. Three people have been hospitalized for influenza so far in Montezuma County Lock also discussed concerns about plague, which is spread by fleas. Plague is suspected to be the cause of a recent prairie-dog die-off in La Plata County but so far it hasn’t been seen in Montezuma County. Lock said a number of people have called about possible prairie-dog die-offs here. She also said the local community has seen 22 animal bites in the past quarter, a fairly high number.
Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.