Category: Drugs
More Babies Are Being Born With Syphilis. Blame Meth and Opioids.
Editor’s note: This article was updated Feb. 26 to show that 18 states, including Michigan, have screening requirements in a woman’s third trimester for all pregnancies or for those considered at high risk of infection. Alayna Alvarez Edittorial Assistant, Stateline Some…
Americans Ready To Crack Down On Drug Prices
By Jay Hancock, Kaiser Health News Large majorities of Americans from both major parties support steps to control prescription drug costs such as showing prices in ads, removing barriers to generics and letting patients get less expensive drugs from Canada,…
A Parent-To-Parent Campaign To Get Vaccine Rates Up
Alex Olgin, WFAEKaiser Health News In 2017, Kim Nelson had just moved her family back to her hometown in South Carolina. Boxes were still scattered around the apartment, and while her two young daughters played, Nelson scrolled through a newspaper…
Trump administration moves to cut Planned Parenthood funding
HHS Finalizes Rule Seeking To Expel Planned Parenthood From Family Planning Program By Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News The Trump administration Friday finalized a regulation intended to push Planned Parenthood out of the Title X federal family planning program, keeping…
Is pot or CBD use safe while pregnant or breastfeeding?
Talk with a Doc: Cannabis use while pregnant and breastfeeding Public Health Insider Now that retail cannabis is legal in Washington, there’s a lot of speculation about its potential benefits and harms. Whether it’s marijuana, edibles, CBD products, or any…
Two Crises In One: As Drug Use Rises, So Does Syphilis
By Anna Gorman, California Healthline Public health officials grappling with record-high syphilis rates around the nation have pinpointed what appears to be a major risk factor: drug use. “Two major public health issues are colliding,” said Dr. Sarah Kidd, a…
Pay Attention to This Little-Noticed Opioid Lawsuit in Oklahoma
The trial will for the first time provide access to evidence aimed at showing that drug companies flooded markets with opioids, knowing that they were addictive.
Drug-Price Debate Targets Pharmacy Benefit Managers
Some insurers defend PBMs, arguing that blaming them for high drug prices is unfair when drug companies are free to set their prices as high as they want.
Americans Cross Border Into Mexico To Buy Insulin At A Fraction Of U.S. Cost
Close to 1 million people in California alone cross to Mexico annually for health care, including to buy prescription drugs.
Measles: Why it’s so deadly, and why vaccination is so vital
In the 1960s, measles infected about 3-4 million people in the U.S. each year. More than 48,000 were hospitalized. Up to 500 people died.
What ‘Dope Sick’ Really Feels Like
Detoxing off heroin or opioids without medication is sheer hell. I should know.
Measles Vaccine Demand Surges in Northwest
Measles outbreak in the Pacific Northwest triggers surge in demand for the vaccine — including among those who had previously shunned the shots.
Making opioid pill harder to abuse may have led to more injection drug use
Reformulation of the OxyContin to make it more difficult to abuse directly led to a large rise in hepatitis C infections as drug abusers to injectable heroin
More than 60 measles cases confirmed or suspected in NW
52 confirmed cases and nine suspect cases of measles have now been linked to the outbreak in the Pacific Northwest.
America’s overdose epidemic projected to get worse
The annual number of opioid overdose deaths will increase to 81,700 in 2025, the study projects.