It was held this afternoon, Thursday 16 May, at the “Michele and Pietro Ferrero” Hospital in Verdunothe official presentation of Dr. Salvatore Zito, new director of the Hygiene and Public Health Service (Sisp) of the ASL Cn2.
Dr. Zito was welcomed in the presence of the general director of the ASL Massimo Veglioof the health director Laura Marinaroof the director of the Prevention Department Pietro Maimone and the administrative director Claudio Monti.
The new director of Sisp has been in office since the end of 2023, after having spent twenty-three years at the ASL Cn1 where he held various positions, including that of head of Travel Medicine. “I accepted this new role at ASL CN2 with some hesitation – Zito said during the meeting -. It was about accepting a great challenge, leaving everything I was familiar with for a reality I didn’t know. After six months I can only feel satisfied and happy with this choice, also thanks to the great welcome I received from day one. Among the characteristics of this new team, the one that struck me most is the ambition, the desire to work hard to become a great local health authority, and in these 5 years of office I will do everything possible to work as best as possible and carry out many projects”.
Within the Prevention Department, the Sisp deals with the protection of health and safety in living environments. Among the tasks of the department, together with the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection, there are joint checks on specific issues such as unpleasant odors, environmental pollution with effects on people’s health, presence of materials containing asbestos, adverse events with potential health and hygiene repercussions .
The opinion of the Sisp is requested regarding the municipal hygiene regulations relating to commercial activities and those relating to mortuary police activity and cemetery master plans. The Service manages the Tuberculosis Epidemiology and Prevention Center through preventive activity (surveillance and control of the pathology) and operational coordination between the diagnostic, clinical and hygiene activities of the Functional Dispensary.
Through the Vaccination and Infectious Disease Prophylaxis Structure, the Sisp has responsibility for the Vaccination sector (for pediatric and adult age groups), Epidemiology (surveillance and control of infectious diseases), Travel and Migration Medicine. “This is a department that took on great resonance during the pandemic, led at the time by director Franco Giovanetti, having a notable impact on the territory,” specifies general director Veglio.
“The things that make the news are the ones that don’t work, so the fact that we don’t talk about certain departments is just a sign that everything is going as planned, in the right direction – explained Dr. Pietro Maimone, director of the Prevention Department of ASL CN2 -. Battles are not won mainly in the hospital, but on the front, just like in war, and in this prevention is everything.”
The Prevention Department is the structure of the ASL CN2 responsible, in the territory of competence, for guaranteeing the protection of collective health, through the promotion of health, the improvement of lifestyles, the prevention of pathological conditions and disabilities, the development of human and animal public health interventions.
“Prevention is fundamental, not just important; for this reason, the request for funds should be seen as an investment and not as a cost”Zito underlined.
The team explained how the local health authorities are preparing, speaking precisely of prevention, for a new pandemic which, as history teaches, will arrive, but the date of which we do not know. “First of all we prepare with pandemic plans, built on the basis of past experience, then continuous surveillance is important, every week the service processes the data that comes from access to the emergency room, thus having constant monitoring. The most devastating pandemics today are those that attack the respiratory system, whereas in the past they were linked to contaminated water. The turnaround in the quality and length of life occurred with vaccines and the advent of drinking water, contrary to what many might think.”Zito continued.
“It is better to abandon the skepticism about vaccines that we are experiencing among a segment of people with a high cultural level who unfortunately consolidate their ideas through biased sources. Apart from this, we are not worried about this attitude, the historical percentage of people against vaccines is around 2%, today it has reached up to 5%, but it is not such a worrying figure as to endanger the community”the new manager added, before director Veglio’s comment: “If everyone maintained a healthy lifestyle with the same stubbornness with which they demand healthcare services, the demand would decrease and consequently the availability of the same services would increase”.
