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Kern County launches "Disease Fighters" public-health campaign; board receives presentation
Summary
Kern County Public Health presented its 2025 "Disease Fighters" health-education campaign and shared 2024 disease and service statistics; the Board of Supervisors voted to receive the presentation.
Kern County Public Health presented its new 2025 health-education campaign, "Disease Fighters," to the Kern County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 11, and the board voted to receive the presentation.
The campaign frames Public Health staff as "disease fighters" and will run monthly messages focused on specific infectious threats, county officials said. Brynn Kerrigan, director of Kern County Public Health, told the board the campaign aims to raise awareness of prevention steps residents can take and to highlight the department's daily work.
"Every year, Kern County residents face exposure to infectious diseases ... The impact of infectious disease is significant," Kerrigan said during her remarks, noting that nearly 220,000 reportable disease incidents were processed in Kern County in 2024. The presentation also cited operational data for 2024: 31,855 laboratory specimens resulted; roughly 91,957 clinic patient encounters across county sites; 573 mobile-clinic visits; 28,363 health inspections; 73,421 calls to Public Health call lines; and the county's emergency medical services received a record 138,535 911 medical calls.
Kerrigan said the campaign will include public-service announcements on local television and monthly educational themes for specific conditions such as valley fever, West Nile virus, Salmonella and HIV. The presentation included brief video materials produced by the department and examples of frontline work in immunizations, environmental health, laboratory testing and outbreak investigation.
The board received the presentation by motion; the clerk recorded the vote as approved, "all ayes." The presentation drew brief remarks of appreciation from board members during the receiving action.
Kerrigan and her marketing team remained available to answer follow-up questions and emphasized the department's emphasis on prevention, testing and community outreach as the county confronts rising disease incidence.
