The Guthrie County Public Health Department recently purchased new equipment to help with their hazmat situations.

Director Jotham Arber says they purchased eight Powered Air Purifying Respirators with a $10,000 grant from the federal government and the Centers for Disease Control. The PAPRS are a unit that is worn on the waist of an individual that wears a hazmat suit in infectious disease situations.

“So that when our clinicians go out into the field, if there is something like an ebola-level or even tuberculosis, (or) something more common like measles that type of something. Anything that’s airborne our clinicians would be able to wear that apparatus and protect them so they could deliver services.”

With the ever changing world of diseases and people traveling, especially from the Des Moines Airport to Guthrie County and vice versa, Arber sees this purchase as an added benefit.

“I do harken back to H1N1. That was a pretty big deal. We learned a lot from that and if we had this equipment, we would’ve probably been using that during that period as well.”

Arber adds that they have three units available for any provider or emergency responder from the county to use at their discretion.