It’s offical, cnacer cluster bigger than Clyde
By Becky BrooksPen News correspondentclydenews@bizwoh.rr.comThe Ohio Department of Health has now only officially determined that Clyde and Green Creek Township in Sandusky County are part of a cancer cluster, but added the defined cluster area now includes southeastern 0ttawa County, the northeast section of Sandusky County and a small chunk of Erie County.A spatial analysis using information on 277 pediatric cancer cases from 1996 to 2006 in eight Northwest Ohio counties was entered into a state software program, which generated diagrams of a cancer cluster not only in Sandusky County — but a larger regional circle.ODH’s Dr. Robert Indian also pointed out at a press conference last week that there is a low probability that the cancers could have occurred by chance alone.“The next step is to take this and say what is in that circle,” commented Mary Dennis, a supervisor at Sandusky County Health Department, on Monday morning in the SCHD office.“It defines a better idea of where we should be looking,” she added.The regional childhood cancer cluster will mean area health departments will be working together in the future. In the newly defined, regional cancer cluster of 27 cases — 19 children are in Sandusky County and eight are in Ottawa County, officials reported. No cases were identified in Erie County in the study.Nancy C. Osborn, R.N. Ottawa County Health Commissioner, said Tuesday from her office that she has not received additional information yet from ODH as to the type of pediatric cancers that have been diagnosed in her county. “I’m not sure what the Ohio Department of Health is intending to do at this point,” she added, noting the information was only released May 29.While the Sandusky County Health Department is extending its own studies into conducting a reproductive study including fetal and infant death statistics, Ottawa County has not been asked to take that step, she said.Osborn added that the southern townships of Ottawa County seem to be included in the cancer cluster — Bay and Erie townships. She noted, though, that the mapping for the ODH spatial cancer study was not exact.“This is not unusual when they are doing spatial analysis,” the health commissioner said. “I wasn’t aware the frequency was enough to draw a connection,” she added about the pediatric cancers in her county over the last decade.“We’ll assist ODH anyway we can. We’ll look to them to decide what the path can be.”Dawn Mason, director of nursing for the Sandusky County Health Department, said since the announcement of the cluster information last Friday local health officials have not spoken to Ottawa County HD officials. Both Mason and Dennis said the information is pointing the state and county health departments in the right direction.Mason added that investigators have to consider if there was a solitary event or some transient event that occurred over a period of time.ODH and the SCHD held a press conference Friday in Fremont, according to Mason.At the press conference, Dr. Indian, the director of the ODH comprehensive cancer control, presented four different analysis reports using incidents of childhood cancer reported to the Ohio Cancer Incidence surveillance System.
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