It’s never a good sign when you start urinating blood. It was 2010, Sara Lewis was 12, and she assumed she had started her period. But what she initially thought was menstrual blood turned out to be something ominous — a sign that her kidneys were failing. At first, the doctors weren’t sure why the…
Recent price hikes for certain prescription drugs have provoked an outcry from consumers, physicians and even members of Congress. The latest uproar has focused on EpiPens, the emergency auto-injectors for severe allergic reactions. Prices have soared to more than $600 for a two-pack. In a new Doctor’s Column, Dr. Bob Wiskind, an Atlanta pediatrician, looks…
Epinephrine is cheap. My office purchases a multi-dose vial for less than $10. That is why it is ironic that there has been so much discussion and debate recently about the increased cost of EpiPens, which are well-known auto-injectors for epinephrine. The reasons for the price uproar can be found in a combination of supply…
Three in 10 Georgia adults are obese, giving the state the 19th-highest rate in the nation, a recently released report says. Between 2014 and 2015, adult obesity rates decreased in four states (Minnesota, Montana, New York and Ohio), increased in two (Kansas and Kentucky) and remained stable in the rest, according to the report from…
House Bill 684, which would allow dental hygienists to work without a dentist present in some safety-net situations, stalled in the most recent session of the Georgia General Assembly. But its fate was controversial, and the proposal likely will be brought up again when legislators convene in early 2017. Though the dispute has been seen…
Continued growth in Georgia’s Medicaid enrollment accounts for much of the state budget increases that the Department of Community Health is seeking both for fiscal 2017 and 2018. In addition, the agency said Thursday that it’s starting a payment system next July that will penalize health insurers for not meeting medical quality standards. Medicaid enrollment is projected…
A Georgia Tech researcher said Monday that hundreds of thousands of Georgia children have problems getting access to a dentist in the state. Nicoleta Serban, an industrial and systems engineering professor, told state lawmakers that there are more than 500,000 Georgia children who are not eligible for the public insurance programs Medicaid and PeachCare, but…
To many people, spring and fall are the prettiest and most pleasant times of the year in the Peach State. But these temperate, transitional seasons have a downside: They often help trigger allergies. The seasonal pollen that causes an uptick in watery eyes and runny noses has been on the rise in recent years, both…
A low-profile nonprofit based in Decatur was recognized for its substantial public health work by receiving what’s considered the world’s largest humanitarian prize — the $2 million Conrad Hilton Humanitarian Prize. The Task Force for Global Health, Georgia’s largest nonprofit, has a mission to control and eliminate neglected tropical diseases, increase access to vaccines, and…
One square mile of a Miami neighborhood has become the ground zero of “locally transmitted’’ Zika virus cases in the continental United States. That’s the first area in the 50 states where a local mosquito has infected a person with the virus, which can cause catastrophic brain damage in fetuses. Before the Wynwood neighborhood cases…