LEE COUNTY, FLORIDA—With cleanup efforts taking place around the clock, viewers are asking if they should be concerned about the health effects after Hurricane Ian.
According to Lee Health, more patients are coming to the office with skin infections, as well as cuts and scrapes from cleaning their homes and businesses.
“A lot of the rashes we see are related to contact dermatitis, and we love mango trees in Florida. Many had mango trees and other fruit trees that didn’t survive. They just chopped them down and moved the pieces away, and if you take the sap from those trees, the vegetation can cause poison ivy-like rashes on your skin,” says Lee Health’s Systems Medicine of Epidemiology. Director Mary Beth Saunders, Ph.D.
Dr. Sanders says he’s also seen people who’ve been cut or scraped develop infections afterward.
“After a hurricane you have cuts and scrapes that don’t get a chance to be cleaned properly right away and can get red and red around the edges, increased drainage and really a lot of pain. If you need to think..”
Lee Health is also seeing people develop coughs and congestion and is trying to determine if it’s related to the virus or environmental exposure.
Environmental exposures such as home environments that are not as healthy as the number of allergens in the home is increasing.
Lee Healths says it will continue to work on homes undergoing remediation processes to ensure they are wearing N95 masks to help protect their airways.
Lee Health also says to see a doctor if you have any health concerns.
