On Monday, the Roanoke City Council will receive a presentation from Cynthia Morrow, district health director with the Roanoke City Health Department.
The data that Morrow will present suggest that the average Roanoker isn’t as healthy as the average Virginian.
Roanoke is faring worse than the average county in Virginia for population health and well-being, and worse than the average county in the nation, the presentation states.
The leading causes of death under age 75 in Roanoke city are cancer, heart disease, accidents, diabetes mellitus and COVID-19.
A visual in the presentation shows Roanoke city cancer incident rates fall between 444.00 and 481.46 incidents per 100,000 people.
The city also sees almost double the hospitalizations with asthma per 100,000 people than the average Virginia county, and over double the hospitalizations with COPD. Roanoke city also sees higher rates of hospitalizations than Virginia’s average county for chronic kidney disease, hypertension, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.
In 2021, according to the presentation, Virginia’s economic burden of the opioid crisis was $5.02 billion. That year, Roanoke spent $1,510 per capita on the issue, which puts the city in the highest spending category on the subject.
Interpersonal violence in Roanoke comes at higher rates than surrounding localities, with Roanoke experiencing 22.6 deaths from firearms per 100,000 people in the city.
Gonorrhea infection rate and chlamydia infection rates are both higher in Roanoke than the Virginia state average and national average.
On the bright side, resources are available.
The end of the presentation details services available from the Roanoke City Health Department, and gives an overview of what services were provided in 2024.
In 2024, the department provided over 1,500 family planning visits, over 3,600 immunizations, and over 900 STI encounters. Other services provided include disease investigations, case management, food permits and things like car seats, cribs, test strips and Narcan.
There are over 5,000 Women Infants and Children clients with services each month, according to the presentation.
The report begins on page 36 of the Agenda packet, below.
Public hearings Monday evening
On Monday evening, the council will hold a hearing and vote on a rezoning request that would allow for a townhome community on 28 acres of undeveloped land near the Brandon Point Apartments. Details can be found from last week’s agenda story, when the rezoning was in front of the planning commission.
Those interested in seeing the full agenda for Monday’s 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. sessions can find it here. The council meetings will take place in the City Council Chamber, in the Noel C. Taylor Municipal Building at 215 Church Avenue in Roanoke. For those who cannot attend the meeting in person, it will be livestreamed on YouTube.