ODH spending $44k a day on swine flu

The Ohio Department of Health is spending about $44,000 a day responding to the spread of the H1N1 flu virus (Source: “Governments' flu bills piling up,” Columbus Dispatch, May 10, 2009).

The outbreak is estimated to have cost local health departments in Ohio about a dollar per resident. Local health officials say that given their dire budget situations, they are hopeful that the work they have done during the swine flu outbreak will cause policymakers to rethink funding commitments for public health.

"Unfortunately we get funded crisis to crisis," said Beth E. Bickford, executive director of the Association of Ohio Health Commissioners.