Guthrie County Public Health has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Iowa Department of Public Health.

 

Director Jotham Arber says it benefits emergency preparedness operations. “We’ll use that money to purchase personal protection equipment and do some trainings for County health professionals. We’ll also be purchasing four PAPR (Powered Air Purifying Respirator) breathing units.”

 

Arber adds the benefits of the training and purchasing of the respirators will stretch beyond his department. “Those will be able to be used by our department, the hospital, the fire departments, EMS, and we can do County-wide training with the rest of the money that we have, so any health professional can come out and we’ll teach them how to use that.”

The purchasing of the four respirators will account for approximately $5,000 of the grant.