Speaker Scott A. Damon CDC

The topic of the presentation was “Controlling Zika Virus.”  The speaker, Scott Damon is a Health Communication Specialist working for the CDC U.S.V.I. - Zika Response, St. Thomas he inform the audience about Zika virus in the U.S. Virgin Islands and CDC’s cooperation with the Virgin Islands Department of Health in working to control the virus. He also is exploring how the CDC can better partner with Rotary in getting the word out about Zika. Timing was very good as there was an article in today's Daily News about the increase in cases of Zika in St. Thomas. He explained how if you are in a situation were you are or might be pregnant, how to avoid contact with mosquitos. Once you have had the Zika virus, there is a great chance you will not get it again.

 

Scott Damon is a Health Communication Specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). On a regular basis he manages CDC’s communication and education work on asthma, air quality, and air pollution. He also led CDC’s health communication response on FEMA trailers and has served on various emergency responses for CDC for 15 years.

Scott received a Master of Arts in International Affairs from Ohio University. He has also received a Certificate of Public Health from John Hopkins University. In addition, Scott is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.

 

For more information about what our territory is doing to help stop the spread of Zika, I have attached 2 stories that ran recently on the St. Thomas Source online news paper.

http://stthomassource.com/content/news/local-news/2016/07/17/work-doh-and-cdc-are-top-zika-response  By Kelsey Nowakowski — July 17, 2016

http://stthomassource.com/content/news/local-news/2016/07/20/weekly-update-nine-more-zika-cases-stt  By Kelsey Nowakowski — July 20, 2016