Latest Health News From The Illinois Newsroom Team
What is going wrong – and what can improve for students with disabilities in Champaign public schools?
Public schools in Champaign are using a new report to change their approach to teaching students with disabilities.

Hamburgers are safer than hot dogs: Tips for pet care during extreme heat
The ongoing heatwave in the Midwest and eastern U.S. isn’t just deadly for humans, but pets too.

First human case of West Nile Virus found in southern Illinois
The state’s health department says the case marks the earliest known instance of a person in Illinois being infected with West Nile virus since 2016.

How a Sierra Leonean NGO is tackling period poverty in schools
Tens of millions of girls around the world regularly miss school because of their periods. A local NGO in Sierra Leone is using reusable menstrual hygiene kits and sexual and reproductive health education to keep girls in the classroom.

Across the U.S. blood donations decrease in summer
Out of 62% of the population eligible to donate blood in the U.S. only 3% did in 2024.

OSF Healthcare to merge Urbana and Danville hospitals into one system
The organization says the move will expand mental health treatment options and reduce duplication — though some employees say the announcement caught them off guard.

Midwest women may be impacted by Trump’s revocation of emergency abortion guidance
The Trump Administration last week rescinded Biden-era guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions to women when they are necessary to stabilize their medical condition.

Champaign-based Health Alliance plans to end all coverage, eliminating more than 600 jobs
The news comes after Carle Health recently announced that Health Alliance will stop providing all types of coverage at the end of the year.

Five years have passed since the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some takeaways.
Social distancing, sanitation, and remote work became part of our everyday lives when the COVID-19 Pandemic began in 2020. Five years later, its impacts are still being felt.

A million people in the Midwest could lose Medicaid under federal work requirements
Up to 1 million low income and disabled people across the Midwest could lose their Medicaid health insurance coverage, according to a new analysis.

What Trump’s cuts to Medicaid will mean for nursing homes, long-term care facilities in Illinois
Experts and advocates in Illinois say the sweeping Medicaid cuts approved by House Republicans could have devastating effects on low-income seniors and people with disabilities living in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

More babies are being admitted to NICUs in the Midwest, according to CDC data brief
In 2023, the percentage of babies admitted to the NICU was 11.4% in Indiana, 10.1% in Illinois, 10.7% in Iowa, 8.5% in Kansas, 11.3% in Kentucky, 10.5% in Missouri, 11.4% in Nebraska, 10.2% in Ohio, and 8.9% in Oklahoma.