Another round of free covid tests available in time for holiday travel
Just in time for the holidays, another round of four free at-home covid tests are available for mail order starting today, according to the US Department of Health. “Beginning Nov. 20, every U.S. household can again place an order to receive four more free covid-19 rapid tests delivered directly to...
No more Thanksgiving ‘food orgy’? New obesity medications change how users think of holiday meals
For most of her life, Claudia Stearns dreaded Thanksgiving. As a person who struggled with obesity since childhood, Stearns hated the annual turmoil of obsessing about what she ate — and the guilt of overindulging on a holiday built around food. Now, after losing nearly 100 pounds using medications including...
Tracking of covid-19 cases shifts as virus rides periodic waves
Over the past few years, checking the number of weekly covid-19 cases on a health department online tracker became second nature for a lot of people concerned about how the virus impacted their communities. The type of data available is now a lot different in much of Pennsylvania. “The covid-19...
Pittsburgh-based stroke study brings improvements for Hempfield man and hope for a better futureVideo
Alex “Mike” Signorini had just methodically returned a drill bit to its case, and he couldn’t wait to text his doctor with the news. A woodworker and mechanic who managed a tire shop for 38 years, Signorini once spent his days working on cars, jogging and riding his motorcycle. Putting...
Study: skin-to-skin for premature babies has positive outcomes
In a dark room, Nichole Kurtz lifts the blanket on the side of the incubator and carefully navigates the tubes and wires. She reaches for her son, Lennox Lee-Heyward, who was born premature on July 17 at 26 weeks three days, weighing 2 pounds 4 ounces. He lets out a...
In death, one cancer patient helps to erase millions in medical debt
A New York City woman who died Sunday from cancer has raised enough money to erase millions of dollars in medical debt with a posthumous plea for help. Casey McIntyre told followers in a social media message posted by her husband that she had arranged to buy the medical debt...
Trial begins in Comprehensive Healthcare’s nursing home fraud case
One by one, defense attorneys for five nursing home administrators accused of health care fraud told a federal jury Thursday in Pittsburgh that their clients were innocent. That there was actually no fraud at all, but sloppy record keeping. That their clients did not receive any financial benefits for their...
IUP names dean for proposed college of osteopathic medicine
Indiana University of Pennsylvania leaders have hired a dean for their proposed college of osteopathic medicine and say the move is an important step toward establishing the state’s first such school on a public campus. Dr. Miko Rose, 50, comes from the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Pacific Northwest University...
Measles deaths worldwide jumped 40% last year, health agencies say
LONDON — Measles deaths globally spiked by more than 40% last year and cases rose after vaccination levels dramatically dropped during the pandemic, leading health agencies said Thursday. The highly infectious disease triggered epidemics in 37 countries last year, versus 22 countries in 2021. It sickened 9 million children and...
Barefoot workers and cracked floors were found at a factory that made recalled eyedrops, FDA says
WASHINGTON — An Indian company that recently recalled eyedrops sold in the U.S. had a host of sanitation and manufacturing problems, including barefoot workers, cracked floors and altered records, U.S. health inspectors found. Food and Drug Administration officials uncovered more than a dozen problems at the Mumbai plant operated by...
Progress in childhood cancer has stalled for Blacks and Hispanics, report says
Advances in childhood cancer are a success story in modern medicine. But in the past decade, those strides have stalled for Black and Hispanic youth, opening a gap in death rates, according to a new report published Thursday. Childhood cancers are rare and treatments have improved drastically in recent decades,...
Ban on pelvic, rectal exams on unconscious, unknowing patients passes in Pa.
A ban on pelvic, prostate and similar exams on unconscious patients who haven’t given permission needs only the signature of Gov. Josh Shapiro to become law. The state House and Senate unanimously approved the law, according to a news release from state Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler, D-Philadelphia, the author of one...
Excela pays $10M to settle suits by 2 cardiologists, doctors’ attorney says
Excela Health is paying $10 million to settle civil suits brought by two cardiologists who formerly held staff privileges at the health system’s Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg, according to an attorney representing the doctors. In the suits that were dropped Tuesday in Allegheny County Court, Drs. George Bou Samra and...
Pa. leads nation in Lyme disease cases and development in forests is boosting the risk
This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. HOUSERVILLE — Pennsylvania leads the nation in Lyme disease cases, and the continued development of forested areas increases people’s risk of being bitten by the...
Nearly 2 dozen toddlers sickened by lead linked to tainted applesauce pouches, CDC says
U.S. health officials are warning doctors to be on the lookout for possible cases of lead poisoning in children after at least 22 toddlers in 14 states were sickened by lead linked to tainted pouches of cinnamon apple puree and applesauce. Children ages 1 to 3 were affected, and at...
Allegheny General Hospital receives approval for long-range development plan
Pittsburgh City Council on Monday approved an institutional master plan that lays out Allegheny General Hospital’s development goals over the next decade. Under the 10-year plan, all patient rooms at the North Side hospital will be converted to private rooms. The plan indicates the hospital also is considering constructing new...
Bird flu reports increasing in U.S.; flocks culled in effort to reduce spread
Avian flu has reappeared in U.S. flocks for the first time since April. In an online report updated Wednesday by the USDA, 15 states in the past 30 days have reported at least one confirmed infected flock. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a flock of more than 47,300...
‘Veterans need help’: Homelessness among those who served continues to be cause for concern
Robin was standing on the side of the road in Downtown Pittsburgh holding a piece of tattered cardboard, asking for money. “It was my birthday,” said the Army veteran who gave only a first name, tearing up standing on the Boulevard of the Allies. “And I couldn’t even get $1....
Highmark CEO’s pay tops $9.47 million in 2022
Highmark President David Holmberg took home about $9.47 million in 2022, an increase of 9.6% over his compensation in the previous year, according to financial statements filed Friday. For Holmberg, who also serves as board chairman, that pay package includes a base compensation of about $1.57 million and bonuses and...
U.S. childhood vaccination exemptions reach their highest level ever
NEW YORK — The proportion of U.S. kindergartners exempted from school vaccination requirements has hit its highest level ever, 3%, U.S. health officials said Thursday. More parents are questioning routine childhood vaccinations that they used to automatically accept, an effect of the political schism that emerged during the pandemic around...
Census Bureau sees an older, more diverse America in 2100 in 3 immigration scenarios
By the end of the century, the U.S. population will be declining without substantial immigration, older adults will outnumber children and white, non- Hispanic, residents will account for less than 50% of the population, according to projections released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The population projections offer a glimpse...
Man receives the first eye transplant plus a new face
NEW YORK — Surgeons have performed the world’s first transplant of an entire human eye, an extraordinary addition to a face transplant — although it’s far too soon to know if the man will ever see through his new left eye. An accident with high-voltage power lines had destroyed most...
Butler Health System losses nearly doubled in 2023, according to financial statements
Butler Health System’s losses almost doubled in the fiscal year ending June 30, according to newly released financial documents. The system, which in January merged with Excela Health to create Independence Health System, lost $43.3 million in fiscal year 2023. Butler Health reported $22.8 million in losses in the fiscal...
Ohio just legalized recreational marijuana. What does that mean for Pennsylvania?
On Tuesday, Ohio became the 24th state to legalize recreational use of marijuana after having a medical-only program in place. Now all of Pennsylvania’s neighbors, except West Virginia, allow recreational marijuana use. Pennsylvania passed medical marijuana laws in 2016. Pennsylvania medical marijuana patients must now be diagnosed with at least...
FDA approves new version of diabetes drug Mounjaro for weight loss
A new version of the popular diabetes treatment Mounjaro can be sold as a weight-loss drug, U.S. regulators announced Wednesday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Eli Lilly’s drug, named Zepbound. The drug, also known as tirzepatide, helped dieters lose as much as 40 to 60 pounds in testing....
