Federal cuts have hit the Portage County Combined General Health District (PCHD), affecting the department’s ability to monitor and respond to communicable disease outbreaks.
The local loss of approximately $450,000 reflects the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) termination of more than $11.4 billion in public health funding nationwide, said county health district Public Information Officer Sarah Meduri.
The county health department has already had to eliminate three contracts, including one with Professional Consulting Group, which assisted PCHD with communicable disease investigations.
To cope with the cuts, PCHD public health nurses will be moved from other community outreach programs into the department’s communicable disease program. That means removing them from community education, blood pressure checks and off-site community vaccination clinics.
The staff reassignments mean the PCHD will, with limited staffing and resources, attempt to conduct interviews with patients; complete contact tracing; determine the risk of further spread; notify the public if necessary; recommend control measures to stem the spread; collaborate with hospitals, long-term care facilities and schools to contain the spread; and ensure data and documentation is reported to state and federal authorities.
Controlling the spread of communicable diseases is a core responsibility of local health departments and is critical to protecting the community’s health, Meduri said. Such surveillance helps identify outbreaks early and enables departments to prioritize public health responses, as well as to inform community and healthcare providers about risks.
Communicable diseases include respiratory illnesses like measles, COVID-19, whooping cough and TB. Food-borne illnesses could include salmonella, norovirus and E. coli. Vaccine-preventable diseases include measles, mumps, rubella, and Hepatitis A and B. Vector-borne diseases include West Nile Virus and Lyme disease. Sexually transmitted infections include HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. And zoonotic diseases, those that spread from animals to humans, include avian influenza (bird flu).
When done effectively, surveillance and investigation of such diseases can stop outbreaks early, prevent additional infections and save lives, Meduri said. However, without sufficient staffing or resources, the PCHD’s ability to do its job, is “delayed or reduced, increasing risk to the community,” she added.
Though healthcare providers, labs and hospitals are required by law to report certain diseases to local health departments, the cuts may impact PCHD’s ability to share the data with the Ohio Department of Health and the CDC.
The PCHD also lost its contract with a public health expert who helped organize public health data on communicable diseases like COVID-19 and influenza, as well as updated data dashboards and monitored community health trends of infectious diseases. Now, Meduri said, the dashboards will not be updated as frequently.
Also lost was PCHD’s contract with Kent State University’s geography department, which helped PCHD develop a public dashboard users could access to locate food pantries and hot meal sites. The partnership also resulted in visualization tools that helped PCHD make data-driven decisions.
Now, the online food resource dashboard will not be updated as frequently, Meduri said.
Knowing that additional federal funding cuts may be on the way, the PCHD, as well as the city of Kent’s Health Department, are watching Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed 2026-27 budget. In its current form, the state budget does not replace the dollars the federal government has cut.
And without replacement funding, Meduri said there is no clear plan to sustain or restore programs that have already been cut or those that may be. She also noted that PCHD staff have not located alternative funding sources.
Votes on the state budget are already ongoing; it must be finalized this summer.
Kent Health Commissioner Joan Seidel said her department has been minimally impacted so far, but voiced concerns about the broader impacts of federal and proposed state cuts.
The federal government has pulled an “enhanced operations grant” that helped cover the cost of the Kent Health Department’s lease of office and clinic space on East Erie Street. The grant was due to end in June, but now, as it has done in prior years, the city’s general fund will bear the cost, she said.
The grant also provided funding for the Ohio Department of Health’s labs to modernize its facilities, which Seidel said provides the “gold standard” of testing. Vital for testing samples amid concerns for communicable diseases like measles, rabies or food-borne disease, the lab will still test samples sent to it, but will not have the resources it needs to to modernize its facilities, Seidel said.
Since the Kent Health Department’s various inspection and licensing programs largely pay for themselves, cuts and reductions in the proposed state budget don’t tend to impact the city. Even so, Seidel said she is concerned about the broader effect on public health.
For instance, Kent does not have solid and infectious waste facilities, so removing funding for regulating them doesn’t directly affect the city. Kent does, however, generate such waste, so there is a potential broader health risk that could work its way to Kent.
“I think we’re a little bit better positioned than other departments are, but I think it’s yet to see what will happen,” Seidel said. “Federal dollars removed from food banks and state budget cuts for food banks and food assistance programs will definitely hit at a time of great need for hard-working families.”
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.