Sunny and unseasonably warm today with highs in the upper 70s to lower 80s. Dry through Tuesday with mostly sunny skies and highs in the 70s.
Today Mostly sunny, with a high near 78. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming north 12 to 17 mph in the morning. Tonight Mostly clear, with a low around 45. North wind 6 to 8 mph. Friday Sunny, with a high near 70. North wind around 8 mph. Friday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 41. North wind around 6 mph. Saturday Mostly sunny, with a high near 67. Light and variable wind becoming south southeast 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Saturday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 47. Sunday Mostly sunny, with a high near 70. Sunday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 47. Monday Sunny, with a high near 73.
Pottawatomie County has seen a surge of pertussis cases this year, with more than 100 to date. The Pottawatomie County Health Department building, on Main Street in Westmoreland, is at far right.-photo Andy Marso
By Andy Marso
KHI News Service
TOPEKA — Even as local health officials prepare for the unlikely event of an Ebola outbreak in Kansas, some have had their hands full trying to convince people in their communities to take basic measures to contain the spread of more prevalent, contagious and preventable diseases like measles and pertussis.
Kansas has seen spikes in both illnesses this year, leading some health officials to issue orders of quarantine and others to ask people to voluntarily stay home.
Those requests were not always well-received.
“People weren’t as encouraged to act for the community good,” Pottawatomie County Health Director Leslie Campbell said of a local pertussis outbreak this year involving more than 100 confirmed cases. “They were kind of bucking that ‘staying-home-for-five-days’ (request).”
Adrienne Byrne-Lutz, interim director of the Sedgwick County Health Department, said her department issued six letters of quarantine to “high-risk exposures” during the summer measles outbreak that spread from Johnson County to sicken 11 people in the Wichita area.
She said the letters were issued to people who were exposed while visiting the area and planned to travel back to their homes in other states. Some already had bought plane tickets, and Byrne-Lutz said the official letters helped the department secure refunds from the airlines and get them time off work.
Byrne-Lutz said the people involved were “not happy” in some cases to be quarantined in Sedgwick County residences, but they were cooperative. They were monitored daily by county health officials, and the effort proved prescient in the end.
“One person who was under quarantine did become ill from measles,” she said.
Byrne-Lutz said the 11 cases in Sedgwick County resulted in one hospitalization but no deaths. The outbreak has since been declared over.
First line of defense
In Kansas, county health officials are the first line of defense. They have the authority to unilaterally order individuals into quarantine to prevent the spread of infectious disease. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, public officials have not exercised that power on a wide scale since the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.
Jeff Hershberger, public information officer for the Kansas City, Mo., Health Department, said Ebola is not likely to cause a similar reaction because it is spread only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.
“It’s highly unlikely we as a health department would be doing any isolating or quarantining of anyone because of Ebola,” Hershberger said.
He said some hospitals might choose to isolate those who already had Ebola, which thus far has not been confirmed any closer to the Kansas City area than Dallas, where two hospital workers have been infected with the virus.
Hershberger said his department is far more likely to order quarantine for those exposed to more contagious diseases like measles, which spreads through the air.
“If you’re not immunized, you can catch measles just by walking through the room where somebody with active measles had been two hours before,” he said.
Measles infected hundreds of thousands of Americans before routine vaccinations began in the 1960s. The potentially deadly disease was nearly eliminated from the country by 2004, when a record-low 37 cases occurred nationwide. Only 55 cases were reported in 2012.
Vaccination rates in some parts of the country have been dropping, though, in part due to concerns about a link between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella shot. Those concerns persist despite a lack of research evidence to support them. As a consequence, measles incidence is up significantly this year, with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting 594 cases through September.
Kansas City, Mo., has confirmed 13 cases of measles this year. Hershberger said city health officials always try to convince those exposed to stay home voluntarily, but the prospect of missing work can make that a tough sell.
“Sometimes they will feel a little pushback from their employer, but whenever we call and say they’re staying home because we’re telling them to, they usually roll with it,” he said.
Hershberger said that for food service workers, it helps that the city’s food safety code already bars them from working while ill. Their employers are accustomed to those calls.
Valerie Buell processes medical records at the Pottawatomie County Health Department, based in Westmoreland. With a surge in pertussis cases this year in Pottawatomie County, health workers in Pottawatomie County have stayed busy.-photo Andy Marso
But others are not, and measles complicates the situation because infected people can spread it even when they have no symptoms.
Hershberger said that necessitated some extra explanation when his department asked an entire family exposed to measles to stay home.
“There was an initial feeling of, ‘We shouldn’t have to stay home; we’re not sick,’” he said. “But once we explained to the family with measles you can actually be contagious and give the disease to somebody five or six days before you feel sick, they were like, ‘Oh yeah, we’ll go along with that.’”
In those situations, local and state health officials are authorized to enlist law enforcement help in isolating people who are infected or potentially infected.
Community cooperation
Sara Belfry, spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said the agency had not issued any quarantine orders this year, but KDHE Secretary Dr. Robert Moser would consider the measure if necessary.
“He would issue orders if he found it to be medically necessary and reasonable to prevent or reduce the spread of the disease,” Belfry said via email. “Each case is evaluated in conjunction with local health officials, and a determination would be made with the input of local health officials.”
Before issuing such orders, health officials seek voluntary cooperation from the community. In this year’s outbreaks of measles and pertussis, response to those requests has been mixed.
Campbell, the health director in Pottawatomie County, said most residents became cooperative when informed of the risks of spreading pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough. But there were pockets of resistance, and the outbreak strained the resources of the county health department, which has eight full-time and five part-time employees.
“It has caused us a lot of issues, I can tell you, for my workforce,” Campbell said. “We had to have all hands on deck.”
Pottawatomie County has a population of about 23,000. At the beginning of September, KDHE had confirmed 17 cases of pertussis in the county. Numbers provided by KDHE through Oct. 4 showed 84 cases, and Sarah Fornshell, the county’s communicable disease nurse, said last week that the toll has since surpassed 100.
Both Fornshell and Campbell said mass vaccination efforts and isolation of those exposed now seem to be stemming the tide.
“Yes, we actually haven’t had a new case for a week, so we’re knocking on wood,” Campbell said.
Pertussis causes fits of unrelenting, deep coughs that make it difficult to breathe, thus causing the gasping sound that provides the disease with its nickname of whooping cough.
It disrupts sleep, causes muscle aches and can be fatal, particularly in infants and others with compromised immune systems.
A vaccine for the disease was developed in the 1940s and, now combined with inoculations against tetanus and diphtheria, has helped drive rates far below pre-vaccine levels. According to KDHE’s annual report, Kansas had just 52 confirmed cases of pertussis in 2011.
But the disease appears to be making a comeback, both in Kansas and nationwide. A 2013 study published in the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) showed that the vaccine, while still far more protective than going unvaccinated, was less effective against pertussis than against tetanus and diphtheria.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kansas had 347 cases of pertussis last year. This year KDHE has confirmed 262 cases, most of them in Pottawatomie County.
The county includes St. Mary’s Academy and College, a community of Catholics who have splintered from the mainstream church and are less likely to vaccinate than the general population.
Fornshell and Campbell also said they occasionally met resistance outside that community to their requests that people exposed to pertussis stay home for five days and take prophylactic antibiotics.
Fornshell said one person threatened to physically harm her and another agreed to stay home only after she explained to him that if he went out and spread pertussis after being warned not to, he could be held legally liable.
Schools a challenge
Stopping the disease as it spread through some county schools also proved a challenge.
“The biggest kickback we probably had was (from) students and teachers,” Campbell said. “The community was more (receptive), but the teachers were really upset about staying home for five days. They only get so much sick leave.
With the help of a school nurse, Kyra Stromgren, the county health department managed to get nearly 100 percent vaccination coverage for Kaw Valley USD 321 public school employees by requiring them to prove vaccination against pertussis or receive the vaccine within 24 hours, take a five-day course of antibiotics or leave work voluntarily until 21 days since the building’s last pertussis case.
“Once we did that, we didn’t see another single case (in the district),” Fornshell said.
Campbell said her department has distributed about 800 free pertussis vaccines — provided by KDHE — since the outbreak began. She said the county has been fortunate that most cases have been mild, and she has received no reports of whooping cough deaths.
In Sedgwick County, Byrne-Lutz said increased vaccination coverage was key to stopping the measles outbreak before any fatalities.
While not foolproof, widespread use of the measles vaccine has generally provided enough “herd immunity” to protect those for whom the inoculation was not 100 percent effective, as well as those who are unable to receive it.
Byrne-Lutz said 10 of the 11 who became ill in her county had not been vaccinated, but some were infants too young to receive the shot.
Among others who could have had the vaccine and opted out, she said the outbreak has changed some attitudes.
“We had adults come through who said their parents didn’t agree with vaccines so they weren’t vaccinated,” Byrne-Lutz said. “But they were getting vaccinated now.”
Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita authorities have charged a man in the sexual assault and burglary of a 100-year-old woman during a home invasion.
Thirty-five-year-old Kasey Nesbitt made his first court appearance on Wednesday and was charged with rape and aggravated burglary.
The victim, who lives alone, told police that intruders forced open the door of her home on Sept. 29. She says they were in her home for several hours.
Police say forensic evidence linked Nesbitt to the rape.
Nesbitt is being held in the Sedgwick County Jail on $250,000 bond. Online jail records didn’t indicate an attorney.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas National Guard armory in Manhattan is gaining 15 full-time and 163 part-time jobs with the creation of a new brigade.
An activation ceremony is scheduled Sunday at the city’s Frank Anneberg Park for the new 130th Field Artillery Brigade.
The 130th Field Artillery Brigade Headquarters will provide command and control to subordinate field artillery units, including the 1st Battalion, 161st Field Artillery in Hutchinson and the 2nd Battalion, 130th Field Artillery in Hiawatha.
Officials say activation of the new brigade means about 400 Kansas National Guard members will now work at the Manhattan armory, most of them part-time for monthly drills and annual training.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Topeka authorities say a century-old bronze urn missing from a cemetery was found mangled at an area scrap yard.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Bailey’s Scrap Metal called the Topeka Police Department Wednesday to say it had the urn. Police didn’t say how the urn came to be at the scrap yard.
Police say the 3-foot tall and 3-foot wide urn was taken Sunday night or Monday morning. It was placed at the cemetery between 1912 and 1917 to mark the grave of Belle Hurley.
A historian says the urn was a major sight at the cemetery. She says the damage to the urn is “sickening.”
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Dozens of solar panels have been installed and thousands more are planned at Topeka Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center as part of a green initiative expected to save more than $300,000 a year on electricity.
The Topeka Capital-Journal (https://bit.ly/1xTA8Wn ) reports the $2.73 million project to install about 2,600 solar panels started earlier this month at the Topeka facility. It is part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Green Management Program.
The solar panels will produce about 700 kilowatts per day, or roughly 8 percent of the power on the Topeka campus.
The facility is one of three in the region where solar panels are being installed. The others are the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center in Wichita and the Kansas City, Missouri, VA Medical Center
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — James Shields led thousands of fans in a celebratory chant. Lorenzo Cain pranced along the warning track, cradling his newborn son. Ned Yost finally allowed himself to smile.
After nearly three decades spent as one of the game’s biggest laughingstocks, the Kansas City Royals are once again baseball royalty. They are headed to their first World Series since 1985, finishing a four-game sweep in the AL Championship Series with a 2-1 victory Wednesday over the Baltimore Orioles.
In a perfect postseason, the Royals are intent to relish every moment.
“It’s hard to explain,” said Cain, whose clutch hits and dramatic catches earned him the series MVP award. “We’re clicking at the right moment right now.”
There’s no doubt about that.
Alcides Escobar scores the Royals first run of Game 4 of the ALCS Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium. (Photo: Chris Vleisides)
Now, the Royals will carry an 11-game playoff win streak into the World Series, one shy of the major league record. That includes their first eight this season, something that had never been done in postseason history. Kansas City beat Oakland in a 12-inning wild-card thriller to start things off, then swept the Los Angeles Angels in the Divisional Series.
Kansas City will open its first World Series since 1985 on Tuesday against the winner of the NLCS between the Giants and Cardinals. San Francisco leads that series 2-1.
Coincidentally, it was the Cardinals who the Royals beat for their only World Series title.
“It’s been an amazing run,” Royals outfielder Alex Gordon said. “It’s nothing better than when you win. Today, same old story: good pitching, good defense and scratch out a win.”
Same old story for the Orioles, too: Solid pitching, good defense — and just not enough offense. They managed seven hits over the last two games against Kansas City, resulting in the first sweep for the franchise in 21 postseason series.
“You saw how close the games were,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “It’s more a testament to what they did. They were playing great defensively.”
After holding the Orioles to three hits in Game 3, Jason Vargas and the Royals bullpen held them to four hits Wednesday night. Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis got the game to Greg Holland, who matched Dennis Eckersley’s record with his fourth save of the best-of-seven series.
Holland got J.J. Hardy to ground out to third base for the final out, and the Royals spilled onto the infield in a wild celebration. Fireworks shot over the crown-shaped scoreboard in center field, and a blue-clad sellout crowd that included Royals greats George Brett and Brett Saberhagen let out a roar while cars on nearby Interstate 70 honked their horns.
“That’s what you dream of as a kid,” Holland said. “Punch your ticket to the World Series, especially before your home crowd. These fans have been waiting a long time. They deserve it.”
Alex Gordon crashes into the left-field wall to rob Baltimore’s J.J. Hardy of extra bases leading off the fifth inning. (Photo: Jason Hanna)
The Orioles, meanwhile, will limp into the offseason after a 96-win season in which they overcame injuries and suspensions to several key players along the way.
“I think it’s not what we didn’t do. It’s more what they did,” said the Orioles’ Ryan Flaherty, whose home run represented their lone run. “We played good baseball.”
Making his first start in nearly two weeks, Vargas shut down the vaunted Orioles lineup in Game 4. The only damage he allowed came in the third inning, when Flaherty went deep.
By that point, the Royals had already manufactured a pair of runs.
Alcides Escobar singled off Orioles starter Miguel Gonzalez to open the game, and Nori Aoki was drilled on the right knee a couple pitches later. Yost then opted to bunt with Cain, one of his hottest hitters, to advance both of the runners.
It was a questionable decision so early in the game. But like almost every unorthodox move that Yost has made, it worked out perfectly — for the first sacrifice of Cain’s career.
Eric Hosmer followed with a chopping groundball, and first baseman Steve Pearce went home with it. Escobar slid safely and the ball bounded away from catcher Caleb Joseph, allowing Aoki to follow his teammate home and giving the scrappy, small-ball Royals a 2-0 lead.
After that, it was up to their defense and bullpen.
Escobar turned a pair of double plays early in the game to help Vargas escape jams, and Gordon made a spectacular catch while crashing into the left-field wall to rob Hardy of extra bases leading off the fifth inning. In the sixth, second baseman Omar Infante was in perfect position to snag Nelson Cruz’s line drive and leave runners on the corners.
Herrera breezed through the seventh and Davis handled the eighth, just as they have all season, and Holland slammed the door on his fourth save of the series.
And set off of a raucous celebration that had been 29 years in the making.
Royals RF Nori Aoki is hit by a pitch in the first inning of Game 4 of the ALCS. (Photo: Chris Vleisides)
In the midst of it all was Yost, the often-criticized Royals manager who has guided a collection of budding young stars to baseball’s grandest stage. In doing so, Yost became the first manager in major league history to win his first eight postseason games.
Now, just four more wins stand in the way of an improbable World Series championship.
“These guys are willing to play selfless baseball where all they’re concentrating on is winning the game,” Yost said. “Nobody is looking to be a hero right now, they’re just looking to win a ballgame, and they’ve done a tremendous job.”
TIGHT GAMES
The Royals’ win was the 14th decided by one run this postseason, topping the record set in 2011 and tied last year. That includes the last two games of the ALCS.
STACKING UP
Kansas City did well this season against both potential World Series opponents.
The Royals swept a three-game series from the visiting Giants in August, beating Madison Bumgarner, Tim Hudson and Tim Lincecum. KC hasn’t played at San Francisco since 2005.
The Royals went 3-1 against St. Louis, sweeping two games at Busch Stadium and splitting back at Kauffman Stadium.
UP NEXT
Royals: The Royals are in the World Series for the third time in franchise history. “It’s been incredible to watch,” said Saberhagen, one of the star pitchers on the ’85 title team.
Orioles: It’s on to the offseason for a team that overcame a series of injuries (Matt Wieters, Manny Machado) and suspensions (Chris Davis) to reach the ALCS. Baltimore still has not made it back to the World Series since 1983.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts says the most important issue for Kansas voters in his re-election race is helping fellow Republicans win a Senate majority.
During a debate Wednesday, independent candidate Greg Orman accused the three-term incumbent of spreading “falsehoods” in trying to portraying Orman as a liberal Democrat.
Roberts and Orman had their third and final scheduled debate at the studio of Wichita station KSN.
The race has received national attention since Democrat Chad Taylor dropped out last month, making Roberts more vulnerable and jeopardizing Republicans’ drive to recapture the Senate.
Orman is running as a centrist. He opened by saying that both political parties are more interested in playing games than solving problems.
Roberts countered by saying that a vote for him is a vote for a GOP majority.
WICHITA, Kan. -A Salina Man was indicted in federal court Wednesday on drug and firearms charges.
Dustin Wayne Reavis, 33, is charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, one count of unlawful possession of a firearm following a felony conviction, one count of carrying a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm with the serial number removed. The crimes are alleged to have occurred Aug. 31, 2014, in Sedgwick County, Kan.
Upon conviction, the crimes carry the following penalties:
Possession with intent to distribute cocaine: A maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $1 million.
Unlawful possession of a firearm following a felony conviction: A maximum penalty of 10 years and a fine up to $250,000.
Carrying a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking: Not less than five years and not more than life and a fine up to $250,000.
Unlawful possession of a firearm with the serial number removed: A maximum penalty of five years and a fine up to $250,000.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Lind is prosecuting.
NASHVILLE (AP) – The boxing gloves Trisha Yearwood wears on the cover of her “PrizeFighter: Hit After Hit” album are a high-profile gift. Sylvester Stallone gave them to her and they were used in the filming of “Rocky 5.” The first single is the title track and features Kelly Clarkson as a guest singer. The album comes out November 17.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors have announced plans to seek the death penalty against a man charged with killing his adoptive parents with the help of his biological mother and two friends.
KSNW-TV reports that the Sedgwick County district attorney made the announcement Wednesday after Anthony Bluml pleaded not guilty. He is charged with capital murder in the Nov. 15 shootings of Roger and Melissa Bluml outside the couple’s rural Valley Center home.
Melissa Bluml died the next day, while her husband died about five weeks later.
The defense lawyer requested a separate sentencing from Bluml’s co-defendants. One co-defendant agreed earlier this month to testify against Bluml, his biological mother and a friend of Bluml in exchange for facing a reduced charge.
The Kansas Volleyball Association is pleased to announce the 2014 Week 6 Volleyball Rankings sponsored by PrepVolleyball.com.
Class 6A
1. Olathe Northwest 26-4 (2)
2. Blue Valley North 22-5 (3)
3. Blue Valley Northwest 20-7 (4)
4. Olathe East 21-7 (1)
5. Blue Valley 21-10 (5)
6. Maize 26-5 (6)
7. Manhattan 22-10 (8)
8. Washburn Rural 21-8 (9)
9. Derby 26-9 (7)
10. Hutchinson 20-14 (10)
Class 5A
1. St. James Academy 28-3 (2)
2. Shawnee Heights 24-3 (3)
3. St. Thomas Aquinas 30-4 (1)
4. Topeka-Seaman 26-4 (4)
5. Bishop Carroll 22-3 (5)
6. Blue Valley West 20-8 (6)
7. Andover Central 30-4 (8)
8. Andover 22-6 (9)
9. Lansing 25-6 (NR)
10. Newton 24-11 (NR)
Class 2A
1. Central Plains 25-1 (1)
2. Spearville 30-2 (2)
3. Wabaunsee 29-3 (4)
4. Washington County 26-3 (3)
5. Smith Center 23-5 (5)
6. Ness City 23-4 (8)
7. Lyndon 24-5 (6)
8. St. Mary’s Colgan 21-5 (7)
9. South Central 25-6 (9)
10. Meade 23-6 (10)
Sunny and unseasonably warm today with highs in the upper 70s to lower 80s. Dry through Tuesday with mostly sunny skies and highs in the 70s.
