ASHLAND — The Ashland County Health Department has cleared Claremont Avenue’s Discount Drug Mart pharmacy drive-thru to reopen following the store’s closure because of a severe rodent infestation.
It means no prescriptions will be transferred to other area pharmacies. It remains unclear if any other medical services, such as the administration of immunizations, will be offered during the store’s closure.
The announcement comes the morning after health department officials closed the store, a first for the department.
Pat Donaldson, the department’s director of environmental health, said in an email Thursday health department has never condemned a business building due to rodent infestation.
Discount Drug Mart — which also offers groceries, clothing, electronics and other goods — will remain closed until environmental health specialists from the health department confirm the building’s unsanitary conditions are no longer a threat to the public’s health.
Ashland County Health Department officials said Wednesday there was no evidence of rodents in the pharmacy area.
Discount Drug Mart pharmacy personnel will follow appropriate safety precautions as they walk through the building to the pharmacy area, according to the press release.
The health department’s director of nursing, Jenna Gerwig, indicated on Tuesday she would contact the Ohio Board of Pharmacy if the infestation affected the store’s pharmacy. However, the call is no longer necessary because the pharmacy drive-thru will remain open.
According to the Centers for Disease Control website, certain diseases can spread from rodents to people through direct contact with infected rodents.
This can be through breathing in contaminated air, touching contaminated materials and then touching eyes, nose, or mouth. They can also spread by being bitten or scratched by an infected rodent, or eating food contaminated by an infected rodent.
The CDC said certain diseases can also spread from rodents to people through indirect contact. This can occur when people are bitten by ticks, mites, fleas, and mosquitos that have fed on infected rodents
Diseases can also spread to people from rodents through the consumption of an intermediate host (for example, beetles or cockroaches).
