3 ways Shapiro’s budget would change public health in Pennsylvania
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — When Josh Shapiro pitched his first budget as Pennsylvania’s governor during a nearly hour-and-a-half speech in March, the Democrat...
U.S. backs study of safe injection sites, overdose prevention
For the first time, the U.S. government will pay for a large study measuring whether overdoses can be prevented by so-called safe injection sites, places where people can use heroin and other illegal drugs and be revived if they take too much. The grant provides more than $5 million over...
UPMC cancer doctor invites patients to bicycle in the Rush to Crush Cancer benefit
Dr. Mounzer Agha asks his patients the normal questions of a physician, but there’s one additional inquiry he’s been making. “I have been talking to my patients about bike riding,” said Agha, director of the Mario Lemieux Center for Blood Cancers at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in Shadyside. “Being a...
WHO downgrades covid pandemic, says it’s no longer emergency
GENEVA — The World Health Organization said that covid-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed millions of people worldwide. The announcement, made more than three years after WHO declared the coronavirus an...
Harmonicas for Health rehabilitation program is ‘exercise for the lungs’
A program at Allegheny Health Network is working to help patients breathe easier through music: patients spend 10-12 weeks learning to play the harmonica because playing it can help increase lung capacity. In its early stages, the Harmonicas for Health program is proving to be beneficial, said Kevin Nauer, manager...
CDC’s Rochelle Walensky resigns, citing pandemic transition
NEW YORK — Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, submitted her resignation Friday, saying the waning of the covid-19 pandemic was a good time to make a transition. Walensky’s last day will be June 30, CDC officials said, and an interim director wasn’t...
‘No Addict Left Behind’ details heartbreak of addiction and the hope of recovery
Joey Pagano sat on the sidewalk across from the Charleroi police station. The year was 2011. He called his mother, Cindy Pagano, and told her he couldn’t take it anymore. He had just robbed a gas station. He needed drugs. His life was unravelling. “I wanted to die,” Pagano said....
FDA weighing 1st over-the-counter birth control pill
WASHINGTON — U.S. health regulators are weighing the first-ever request to make a birth control pill available without a prescription. Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration meet next week to review drugmaker Perrigo’s application to sell a decades-old pill over the counter. The two-day public meeting is one of...
38th annual Children’s Health Fair to be held in Unity
More than 500 third grade students will have a chance to explore robotic medicine, dental hygiene and other topics next week at the 38th annual Children’s Health Fair at Charter Oak United Methodist Church in Unity. The event is hosted each year by the Latrobe Area Hospital Aid Society in...
Covid dropped to 4th leading cause of death in U.S. last year
NEW YORK — U.S. deaths fell last year, and covid-19 dropped to the nation’s No. 4 cause, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. Covid-19 deaths trailed those caused by heart disease, cancer and injuries such as drug overdoses, motor vehicle fatalities and shootings. In 2020 and 2021,...
As covid health emergency ends, tracking methods change, too
When home covid tests first became available, they were flying off the shelves and customers often struggled to find them. Now at Mainline Pharmacy’s Harrison City location, home covid tests are available, but kept behind the counter. Erica McClain, pharmacy tech, said people come in to ask for them “every...
U.S. approves 1st vaccine for RSV after decades of attempts
WASHINGTON — The U.S. approved the first vaccine for RSV on Wednesday, shots to protect older adults against a respiratory virus that’s most notorious for attacking babies but endangers their grandparents, too. The Food and Drug Administration decision makes GSK’s shot, called Arexvy, the first of several potential vaccines in...
Brighton Rehab therapists preparing to go on 9-day strike, union reps say
Physical, speech and occupational therapists at Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Beaver County are preparing to go on a nine-day strike over claims of unfair labor practices, including what they say is the nursing home’s failure to bargain in good faith. During a news conference Wednesday afternoon, therapists represented...
Pink eye may be a sign you have covid: What to know about the new virus symptom
A common and relatively mild malady is yet another symptom people should watch for in the fight against covid-19, experts say. Conjunctivitis — commonly known as pink eye and typically brought on by a virus, bacteria or allergies — can be a symptom of a covid infection. And public health...
Is nurse shortage myth or reality? Question drives Pa. hospital staffing debate
Is a shortage of nurses preventing hospitals from hiring enough? Or is there a sufficient supply of nurses, but not enough willing to work in hospitals? That’s a central question in the debate over a proposed Pennsylvania law that would require hospitals to provide a minimum number of nurses for...
Millennial Money: Trusts can aid those with mental illness
More than 50% of Americans will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder during their lifetime, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chances are, some of these individuals will be inheriting wealth at some point. If a family member’s mental health issues may interfere with their...
Scooby doobie don’t: Discarded joints pose hazards for dogsVideo
NEW YORK — Bondi, an 8-month-old toy poodle, had just returned from a walk when he began stumbling. His head wobbled and soon he could barely stand, so his owner, Colleen Briggs, rushed him to the vet. The good doctor quickly made a diagnosis: Bondi was stoned. On his walk,...
Loneliness poses risks as deadly as smoking: surgeon general
WASHINGTON — Widespread loneliness in the U.S. poses health risks as deadly as smoking up to 15 cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic. About half of U.S. adults say they’ve experienced loneliness, Dr....
Man who gave $1M to IUP’s osteopathic medicine school explains why he donated
Rich Caruso was skeptical when he learned his alma mater, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, wanted to boost rural physician access by opening the commonwealth’s first school for osteopathic medicine on a state university campus. Then his 101-year-old mother, Margaret, got sick. What happened next to the woman who lives in...
Feds: Hospitals that denied emergency abortion broke the law
WASHINGTON — Two hospitals that refused to provide an emergency abortion to a pregnant woman who was experiencing premature labor put her life in jeopardy and violated federal law, a first-of-its-kind investigation by the federal government has found. The findings, revealed in documents obtained by The Associated Press, are a...
UPMC lifts mask mandate for most facilities
UPMC officials announced they are lifting mask mandates at most UPMC buildings starting Monday. “Universal masking is no longer required at most UPMC facilities and locations (beginning May 1), but will be required in specific patient care areas where patients are particularly vulnerable to infection,” according to a UPMC spokesperson....
What GOP’s plan for Medicaid work requirements would mean
WASHINGTON — More than a half million of the poorest Americans could be left without health insurance under legislation passed by House Republicans that would require people to work in exchange for health care coverage through Medicaid. It’s one of dozens of provisions tucked into a GOP bill that would...
Quiet and parents’ touch help opioid users’ newborns: study
Babies born to opioid users had shorter hospital stays and needed less medication when their care emphasized parent involvement, skin-to-skin contact and a quiet environment, researchers reported Sunday. Newborns were ready to go home about a week earlier compared to those getting standard care. Fewer received opioid medications to reduce...
Library inside St. Francis of Assisi Church’s Addiction Recovery Ministry dedicated to Brother Mark Lowery
Brother Mark Lowery committed decades of his life to embracing people with addiction, including his own. The Brother Mark Lowery Resource Library is a way to keep his memory alive. It’s inside the church — which is part of the Christ the King Parish — where the Addiction Recovery Ministry...
Dr. Jonas Salk polio vaccine exhibit opens at University of Pittsburgh
The polio vaccine was created by Dr. Jonas Salk at a University of Pittsburgh laboratory about 70 years ago, and Pitt is honoring that legacy by opening a public exhibit of Salk’s personal equipment to remind visitors and students of the importance of vaccines to public health. The exhibit spans...
