County : AIDS Coordinator Named for County
Penny Weismuller, county program manager for communicable disease treatment services, has been named the county’s AIDS coordinator.
She will be paid $50,500 per year, officials said.
In her new position, Weismuller will handle public and private efforts to combat the deadly disease and work with a 15-member AIDS advisory committee that will offer advice on preventing the spread of the disease and on long-term care for AIDS patients.
“We picked her because she has a thorough understanding of public health, of this disease, of government funding, and was already familiar with the various community groups,” Rex Ehling, the county’s public health officer, said Wednesday.
Referring to the various county groups already working on the AIDS epidemic, Ehling said: “We need to all develop a sense of direction.”
Ehling said he hoped the advisory committee would be selected within the next few weeks. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which cripples the body’s immune system, has already taken the lives of more than 200 people in the county.
Weismuller, 41, has been a county public health nurse for 13 years and holds a doctorate in public health.
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