LEE COUNTY, Fla. — As the cleanup efforts take place around the clock viewers have been reaching out asking if they should be concerned about any after affects when it comes to your health after Hurricane Ian.
Lee Health said, they are seeing an increase in patients coming in for skin infections as well as cuts and scrapes from cleaning up their homes and businesses.
"A lot of the rashes we are seeing are related to contact dermatitis and in Florida we love our mango trees. A lot of people had mango trees that didn’t survive or other fruit trees and they cut them down and just moving that debris and getting the sap from those trees and that vegetation can cause poison ivy like rash on the skin," says Dr. Mary Beth Saunders, Lee Health’s System Medical Director of Epidemiology.
Dr. Saunders says they are also seeing people with cuts or scrapes developing an infection afterward.
"Post hurricane you do need to think about when you may have a cut or a scrape that you did not have a chance to get it cleaned appropriately quickly and becomes red and around the edges of it or there’s increased drainage or really a lot of pain."
Lee Health is also seeing people developing a cough and congestion, and are trying to determine whether that’s related to a virus or is it environmental exposure.
Environmental exposure like home environments not being as healthy as they have been with increased number of allergens in homes.
Lee Healths says that when you continue to work in your homes undergoing restoration processes to make sure that you are wearing an N 95 mask to help protect your airways.
Lee Health also says if you are concerned about your health to go see your doctor to be treated.
