Imaging test dye is the latest example of critical drug shortages
The U.S. is caught in a critical shortage of a drug known as contrast media that helps physicians diagnose conditions like a heart attack or stroke. Doctors perform about 50 million scans a year using the injectable drug, which is also used for cancer patients and gunshot and car crash victims. It helps them see […]
Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade
The U.S. Supreme Court officially reversed Roe v. Wade on Friday, declaring that the constitutional right to abortion upheld for nearly a half century, no longer exists. Writing for the court majority, Justice Samuel Alito said that the 1973 Roe ruling and repeated subsequent high court decisions reaffirming Roe “must be overruled” because they were “egregiously wrong,” […]
lllinois reacts to the overturning of Roe v. Wade
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years — a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court’s landmark abortion cases. Friday’s outcome overturning Roe v. Wade is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. The decision, unthinkable just […]
The effects of bird flu ripple through one Iowa county, the hardest hit in the nation
https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s60/audio/2022/06/0617bvbirdfluweb.mp3 Nearly 5.5 million chickens and turkeys have died or had to be destroyed in Buena Vista County, Iowa, during the latest bird flu outbreak — more than in any other county in the nation. That’s impacted producers, as well as workers and their families. Colin Johnson has been around turkeys for nearly seven decades. […]
When children with sickle cell grow up, they face a system not designed for them
https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s4780019/audio/2022/06/sicklecelladults-feature-web.mp3 One night when Paul Gakpo was 9 months old, he fell sick and wouldn’t eat. His parents grew worried and rushed him to a nearby hospital the next morning. It was 1984. The doctors figured out baby Gakpo’s red blood cells were changing from the typical doughnut shape into the shape of a […]
Getting fertility care is complex. It can be harder if you have sickle cell disease
Teonna Woolford has always wanted to have six kids. “I don’t know where that number came from. I just felt like four wasn’t enough,” Woolford said. “And I never wanted an odd number of children. I don’t know. Six is a good number.” https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s4780019/audio/2022/06/sickelcell-fertility-feature-web.mp3 Listen to this story here. Woolford was born with sickle cell […]
A new national mental health crisis line launches soon. Some states aren’t ready
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, help is available. Contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-8255 or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. Updated June 16 at 2 p.m. SPRINGFIELD — Staff at Memorial Behavioral Health in Springfield, Illinois, are on call around the clock to […]
Abortions increase nationwide 2017-2020
The number and rate of U.S. abortions increased from 2017 to 2020 after a long decline. That’s according to new figures released Wednesday by a research group that supports abortion rights. This map will be periodically updated. Source: Guttmacher Institute, 2019
State reports COVID-19 outbreak at Manteno Veterans’ Home
SPRINGFIELD – At least 16 residents and six staff at the state-run veterans home in Manteno have tested positive for COVID-19 and one COVID-positive resident who was in hospice died Wednesday morning, according to the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs. All of the positive residents had received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine […]
Sickle cell patients face a double whammy: Systemic racism and a crippling disease
INDIANAPOLIS — Gary Gibson has a clear memory of his first conversation with his future wife Brenda Williams back in 1973. “Hello, my name is Brenda,” was the first thing Gibson remembers her saying. The second was, “I have sickle cell disease.” “I was like, sickle what?” Gibson said. https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s4780019/audio/2022/06/sicklecelldisease-story1-lackofresources-web.mp3 Listen to this story here. […]
Pritzker expands state child care subsidy, increases reimbursement rates
SPRINGFIELD – Thousands more families in Illinois will soon be eligible for subsidized child care and child care providers will see a pay raise under a series of initiatives that Gov. JB Pritzker announced Thursday. Starting July 1, the state will invest more than $175 million in additional funding for child care and early childhood […]
Pritzker signs bills targeting wage theft, expanding HIV care options
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker has signed 401 bills sent to him this calendar year, leaving just 10 of those passed by lawmakers this year awaiting his action as of Monday. His most recent crop of signed bills from Friday, June 10, included a measure taking aim at wage theft in the construction industry and […]
How a clinician’s desire to be thorough can cause a harmful spiral of unnecessary care
Dr. Meredith Niess saw her patient was scared. He’d come to the Veterans Affairs clinic in Denver with a painful hernia near his stomach. Niess, a primary care resident at the time, knew he needed surgery right away. But another doctor had ordered a chest X-ray instead. The test results revealed a mass in the […]
Water users urged to avoid algal blooms
URBANA – As the temperatures warm and people head out to local waterways, you are warned to avoid algal blooms. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and Illinois Department of Public Health say you, your family, and your pets should avoid touching, swimming, inhaling, or drinking water that looks like the following: looks like spilled, green […]
Call centers struggle to hire for nation’s new mental health crisis line
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, help is available. Contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-8255 or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. HOUSTON — Jennifer Battle is open to just about anything to find people to answer the phones at her Houston-area crisis line. “It’s […]