State's top health investigator steps down

(AP) - State epidemiologist Harry Hull announced Wednesday that he is leaving the state Department of Health after six years that included managing polio infections in the Amish community and preparing Minnesota for pandemic flu and bioterrorist attacks.

Hull was suspended for five days without pay in June after an employee alleged he squeezed her arm and screamed at her after comments he didn't like at a staff meeting.

"Being tried in the media is difficult," he said in an interview Tuesday.

Hull said his suspension was later reviewed and downgraded to a written reprimand. He said he thinks there are still problems at the department, but declined to elaborate because of data privacy laws.

Health Department spokesman John Stieger said he couldn't comment on Hull's concerns. He said Health Commissioner Dianne Mandernach wished Hull well and would start working on a plan to fill the position. She's traveling in China for the next 10 days.

Hull said the flap helped him decide to return to his main career focus of international health and vaccines. He said he was considering an assignment in Africa.

"I really want to pursue my technical interests," said Hull, who advises the federal government on immunizations and visited Uganda in May to help eight African countries prepare for pandemic flu.

As the state's chief investigator of disease outbreaks, Hull led the state's response to five cases of polio virus infection in a central Minnesota Amish community. He said the danger of the virus spreading was over and never posed a serious threat to the general population because most people are vaccinated.

But he said it showed the importance of immunizations.

"This is one of the worrisome things we have in this state - there is so much inappropriate concern about the side effects of vaccination, we've got a significant number of children who are unimmunized or underimmunized," he said.

Hull also said the state is on the right track in planning for pandemic flu, but there's always more to do.

"If we are in a true pandemic, we're going to run out of supplies of most everything in that worst-case scenario," he said. "We won't have enough hospital beds, we won't have enough ventilators, we won't have enough IV fluids, we won't have enough medical people to take care of everyone."

Stieger said Hull's departure wouldn't hurt the state's pandemic preparations.

In 2001, Hull stopped knee surgeries in Minnesota after three men died from contaminated tissue. He helped prompt a national recall of lead trinkets after a Minneapolis boy died of lead poisoning earlier this year.

He said his resignation gives the Health Department time to find a new epidemiologist before the Legislature convenes in January. He will leave his post by mid-December.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Gallery

Fullscreen SlideshowPrevious Slide

1 of 1

Next Slide