Fall abortion battle propels huge early voter turnout for an Ohio special election next week
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A hastily called summer special election over a Republican-pushed measure that would make it harder for Ohio voters to pass future constitutional amendments, including one on the November ballot to guarantee abortion rights, has driven off-the-charts early turnout before Tuesday’s final day of voting. Early turnout has...
CDC: Babies should get recently approved drug for RSV
Infants should get a recently approved drug to protect them against a respiratory virus that sends tens of thousands of American children to the hospital each year, U.S. health officials said Thursday. An infection with RSV is a coldlike nuisance for most healthy people, but it can be life-threatening for...
Independence Health hospital presidents focus on future plans
After reported losses of $62 million and hundreds of staff cuts, Independence Health System’s two new hospital presidents confirmed Monday that all five of the system’s hospitals — Westmoreland, Frick, Latrobe, Butler Memorial and Clarion — are part of the system’s future. “Our leadership team right now strongly believes that...
Brain fog and other long covid symptoms are the focus of new small treatment studies
WASHINGTON — The National Institutes of Health is beginning a handful of studies to test possible treatments for long covid, an anxiously awaited step in U.S. efforts against the mysterious condition that afflicts millions. The announcement on Monday from the NIH’s $1.15 billion RECOVER project comes amid frustration from patients...
Paperwork problems drive surge in people losing Medicaid health coverage
JEFERSON CITY, Mo. — The nation’s top health official implored states to do more to keep lower-income residents enrolled in Medicaid, as the Biden administration released figures Friday confirming that many who had health coverage during the coronavirus pandemic are now losing it. Though a decline in Medicaid coverage was...
Meat allergy caused by tick spit is getting more common, CDC says
NEW YORK — More than 100,000 people in the U.S. have become allergic to red meat since 2010 because of a weird syndrome triggered by tick bites, according to a government report released Thursday. But health officials believe many more have the problem and don’t know it. A second report...
Sesame is being newly added to some foods. The FDA says it doesn’t violate a allergy law
Food manufacturers who deliberately add sesame to products and include the ingredient on labels are not violating a new federal food allergy law, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food safety advocacy group, had petitioned the FDA to halt...
Life sciences company brings corporate headquarters to Lawrenceville
A drug development company is sinking its roots further into the region, moving its corporate headquarters to Lawrenceville after expanding its laboratory in the neighborhood. Predictive Oncology Inc., a publicly traded company that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to accelerate oncology drug discovery, recently expanded its footprint to nearly...
Beaver County communities to receive $5 million from Shell cracker settlement
Beaver County will receive $5 million as part of a settlement over air quality violations at Shell Chemical Appalachia’s cracker plant to use for community projects. The funding is due to a consent order announced in May in which Shell Chemicals Appalachia agreed to pay nearly $10 million for air...
Covid infections ‘a much less scary beast’ now for region, health experts say
Hospital systems and experts say covid-19’s impact on health care and everyday lives is decreasing, while cautioning that the virus is and will remain present in Western Pennsylvania. New Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows that nationally, the number of people dying in the United States every week...
Pollution from Canada’s wildfires was similar to breathing secondhand smoke indoors, study shows
The Canadian wildfires this summer exposed people to secondhand smoke at levels not seen since smoking was banned indoors in 2006, according to preliminary findings from Rutgers University researchers. Since the worst of the pollution from June 6 to 8, Philadelphia and other East Coast cities have continued to experience...
Independence Health announces 4 members of leadership team
Independence Health System officially has a new leadership team, composed of four longtime department heads from the system’s component parts of Butler Health System and Excela Health. On Thursday, Independence introduced Dr. Carol Fox as chief medical officer; Dr. David Rottinghaus as president of Physician and Provider Network; Karen Allen...
UPMC appoints physician to senior vice president role
UPMC has named Dr. Oscar Marroquin as senior vice president, UPMC, and president of UPMC Physician Services Division, including president of University of Pittsburgh Physicians. He will oversee UPP and Community Medicine, which includes more than 5,000 employed physicians and staff. Marroquin is currently UPMC’s chief health care data and...
Medical marijuana company to close Pennsylvania operations, laying off 76
A medical marijuana company, Goodblend Pennsylvania LLC, is closing its operations in the state, affecting 76 jobs. The company has a facility on Beaver Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Chateau neighborhood, which is expected to shutter by Sept. 15. It also has dispensaries along Baum Boulevard in Friendship and one in Erie,...
Anonymous donations to World Health Organization’s new foundation raise concerns
Nearly 40% of the money raised by the WHO Foundation in its first two years came from anonymous sources, worrying some that donors may be trying to influence the World Health Organization and its role in shaping global health policy with their gifts. The foundation, launched in 2020 to help...
Did you get covid but never feel sick? New study hints at why
As the coronavirus emerged, so did a mystery: Why did some who got infected never develop symptoms? One likely explanation is it may be a person’s lucky genes. A new study published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature suggests people with a specific version of a gene were far more...
Maine governor expands access to abortion later in pregnancy
AUGUSTA, Maine — Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill into law Wednesday that expands access to abortions later in pregnancy in Maine, joining a half-dozen states that leave it to doctors and patients to make the decision without restrictions on timing. The new law allows abortions at any time...
Pittsburgh moving ahead with plan for medical debt relief
Pittsburgh officials are moving ahead with plans to alleviate medical debt for some city residents. Councilman Bobby Wilson, D-North Side, introduced a measure last year that would use $1 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars to contract with a company that will buy dischargeable health care debt from...
Fitch downgrades Heritage Valley’s rating
Fitch Ratings has downgraded its rating that assesses Heritage Valley Health System’s vulnerability of default to A+ from AA-. The downgrade of the hospital system’s reflects “several years of sizeable operating losses” and ongoing challenges that emerged before the covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020. The report cited pressures due to...
New drug to protect babies and toddlers from RSV gets FDA approval ahead of cold season
WASHINGTON — U.S. officials on Monday approved the first long-acting drug to protect babies and toddlers against a respiratory virus that sends tens of thousands of American children to the hospital each year. RSV is a cold-like nuisance for most healthy people, but it can be life-threatening in the very...
2nd Alzheimer’s drug in pipeline can slow the disease by a few months but with safety risk
WASHINGTON — Another experimental Alzheimer’s drug can modestly slow patients’ inevitable worsening — by about four to seven months, researchers reported Monday. Eli Lilly and Co. is seeking Food and Drug Administration approval of donanemab. If cleared, it would be only the second Alzheimer’s treatment convincingly shown to delay the...
Law says Pa. autopsy reports should be public. Why aren’t they?
From coast to coast, officials have tried to block Terence Keel from getting autopsy reports as he studies jail and police-custody deaths. But after clashing with recalcitrant civil servants in California, Illinois, Maryland and Texas, the UCLA professor said no state has vexed him like Pennsylvania. In his quest for...
The term ‘unalive’ is a way that kids can safely discuss and understand serious matters
When Emily Litman was in middle school, kids whose parents grounded them would blithely lament: “I just want to die.” Now she’s a middle school teacher in New Jersey, and when her students’ phones and TikTok access are taken away, their out-loud whining has a 21st-century digital twist: “I feel...
Soda sweetener aspartame now listed as possible cancer cause. But it’s still considered safe
The World Health Organization’s cancer agency has deemed the sweetener aspartame — found in diet soda and countless other foods — as a “possible” cause of cancer, while a separate expert group looking at the same evidence said it still considers the sugar substitute safe in limited quantities. The differing...
First over-the-counter birth control pill gets FDA approvalVideo
U.S. officials have approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill, which will let American women and girls buy contraceptive medication from the same aisle as aspirin and eyedrops. The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it cleared Perrigo’s once-a-day Opill to be sold without a prescription, making it the first...
