Contractors hit with $1.1M fine for illegal asbestos removal at Churchill property
The Allegheny County Health Department has fined a contractor nearly $1.1 million for illegally disposing of asbestos while renovating the former Westinghouse headquarters in Churchill. An environmental group called the contractor’s disregard for the asbestos-containing material “unconscionable” and said the fine “is a victory for public health.” “Their reckless behavior...
Allegheny County releases public health plan for next 5 years
As Allegheny County transitions between health directors and is poised to elect a new county executive this year, its Health Department has released a plan that lays out public health goals for the next five years. The 2023-27 Plan for a Healthier Allegheny released Monday was completed under former Health...
U.S. proposes once-a-year covid shots for most Americans
WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials want to make covid-19 vaccinations more like the annual flu shot. The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed a simplified approach for future vaccination efforts, allowing most adults and children to get a once-a-year shot to protect against the mutating virus. This means Americans...
Gyms that survived pandemic steadily get back in shape
NEW YORK — One day in January, a once-regular customer at Fuel Training Studio in Newburyport, Massachusetts, stopped in to take a “shred” class. She hadn’t stepped foot in the gym since before the pandemic. The customer told owners Julie Bokat and Jeanne Carter that she had been working out...
Excela Westmoreland receives statewide recognition for patient safety
Excela Westmoreland Hospital is one of 21 hospitals across Pennsylvania to be honored through the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania’s annual Excellence in Patient Safety Recognition program. The program, which started three years ago, celebrates top-performing hospitals with low rates of health care associated infections, such as central line-associated...
What older Americans need to know about taking Paxlovid
A new coronavirus variant is circulating, the most transmissible one yet. Hospitalizations of infected patients are rising. And older adults represent nearly 90% of U.S. deaths from covid-19 in recent months, the largest portion since the start of the pandemic. What does that mean for people 65 and older catching...
UPMC grew too fast, gained too much market share, report says
A report released Thursday said Pittsburgh-based health care giant UPMC has gained too much share of the market and has too much power. The American Economic Liberties Project, which produced the report, is a nonprofit group that formed to research consolidated corporate power and advocate for stronger antitrust regulations. In...
Pittsburgh moves forward with plan to relieve residents’ medical debts
Pittsburgh City Council has advanced a proposal to use $1 million in covid-relief funding to alleviate residents’ medical debts. Councilman Bobby Wilson introduced the proposal last month and suggested that the city hire RIP Medical Debt, a New York-based nonprofit, to buy dischargeable health care debt directly from hospitals and...
Freshwater fish significantly more contaminated with toxic forever chemicals than saltwater fish and shellfish, analysis shows
Eating just one freshwater fish a year can dramatically increase the amount of toxic forever chemicals coursing through a person’s blood, according to a new study that reflects more than a half-century of pollution contaminating the Great Lakes and rivers nationwide. The alarming finding is based on an analysis of...
Making pig livers humanlike in quest to ease organ shortage
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — The ghostly form floating in a large jar had been the robust reddish-brown of a healthy organ just hours before. Now it’s semitranslucent, white tubes like branches on a tree showing through. This is a pig liver that’s gradually being transformed to look and act like...
Violence in health care: Medical workers increasingly must contend with threats, assaults
When Mike Huss gets an alert from a panic button or call within Allegheny Health Network, he and his team are prepared to jump into action. “If you look at it, some of it is just verbal abuse. Some of it is physical abuse, where someone strikes, punches, kicks, bites...
Sociologist sees ‘haunting’ similarities between 20th, 21st century pandemic responses in U.S.
The last time Tom Soltis spoke to the American Association of University Women’s Murrysville chapter, it was during the emergence of the omicron variant of the covid-19 virus. Soltis recently retired after a career teaching sociology and anthropology at Westmoreland County Community College. He also is the author of “An...
UPMC East to add robotic surgical system in Monroeville
UPMC East will join more than 20 other hospitals throughout the health system in adding robotic-assisted surgery as an option for patients. The da Vinci Surgical System allows surgeons to make small incisions and perform surgery using tiny robotic surgical instruments and cameras. At UPMC East, a dual-console system will...
U.S. kindergarten vaccination rate dropped again, data shows
NEW YORK — Vaccination rates for U.S. kindergarteners dropped again last year, and federal officials are starting a new campaign to try to bring them up. Usually, 94% to 95% of kindergarteners are vaccinated against measles, tetanus and certain other diseases. The vaccination rates dropped below 94% in the 2020-2021...
Tourists may get refunds over covid measures says E.U. court
BERLIN — Travelers whose package tours were ruined by the imposition of restrictions to combat the covid-19 pandemic may be entitled to at least a partial refund, the European Union’s highest court said Thursday. The European Court of Justice weighed in after being asked for its opinion by a court...
A critical shortage: Amid burnout, fatigue, exhaustion, nurses leave their jobs
In 2021, at the height of the pandemic, Denelle Korin was assigned to the covid wing in an acute care hospital in central Pennsylvania where she worked as a nurse. For months, Korin saw patients die. Like thousands of nurses across the country, she herself put her health and safety...
Japan, South Korea protest China visa stoppage in covid spat
TOKYO — Japan and South Korea defended their public health restrictions on travelers from China on Wednesday, a day after China stopped issuing new visas in both countries in apparent retaliation. South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said he finds it “significantly regrettable” that China stopped issuing short-term visas to...
Experts: Dog flu hasn’t hit Western Pennsylvania, but precautions are good idea
A highly contagious respiratory disease targeting dogs has shown up in at least nine states, including Pennsylvania, in recent months, and it’s raising concern among those who work with dogs in the Pittsburgh area. But, while Becky Morrow, a veterinarian and founder of Frankie’s Friends, a nonprofit animal rescue shelter...
Callers keep flooding 988 mental health, suicide helpline
HYATTSVILLE, Md. — When Jamieson Brill answers a crisis call from a Spanish speaker on the newly launched national 988 mental health helpline, he rarely mentions the word suicide, or “suicidio” Brill, whose family hails from Puerto Rico, knows that just discussing the term in some Spanish-speaking cultures is so...
Safety agency to consider ban on gas stoves amid health fears
A federal agency says a ban on gas stoves is on the table amid rising concern about harmful indoor air pollutants emitted by the appliances. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to take action to address the pollution, which can cause health and respiratory problems. “This is a hidden...
New covid variant — dubbed ‘kraken’ — found in Western Pa.
A new strain of covid nicknamed the “kraken” for its dominance over previous strains of the virus has been found in the Western Pennsylvania region, health officials said. Officially known as XBB.1.5, the new covid variant has jumped from just 1% of cases to become the dominant strain in the...
Use drugs, surgery early for obesity in kids
Children struggling with obesity should be evaluated and treated early and aggressively, including with medications for kids as young as 12 and surgery for those as young as 13, according to new guidelines released Monday. The longstanding practice of “watchful waiting,” or delaying treatment to see whether children and teens...
Hepatitis C is a slow-moving killer that can be stopped
LOS ANGELES — Michael Mendez said that when learned he had hepatitis C, “I didn’t even know what it was.” Mendez, 47, had been homeless for years in Los Angeles, and said he hadn’t gone to a doctor the entire time he was living on the streets. When Mendez got...
U.S. approves Alzheimer’s drug that modestly slows disease
WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials on Friday approved a closely watched Alzheimer’s drug that modestly slows the brain-robbing disease, albeit with potential safety risks that patients and their doctors will have to carefully weigh. The drug, Leqembi, is the first that’s been convincingly shown to slow the decline in memory...
Ligonier-based Bethlen Communities to join Concordia Lutheran Ministries
Ligonier-based senior care organization Bethlen Communities signed a letter of intent to join Concordia Lutheran Ministries, a senior health care network with in-home care and inpatient locations in western Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the country. Both organizations “will work … toward an expected affiliation date in the spring,” officials said....
