community health

The flu descended on Connie Gabaldon like a fog, she recalled, clouding her mind and compromising her judgment. It progressed to chest and back pain, the aches perhaps made worse by a fall the 66-year-old had while riding the bus in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

For those not familiar with Missouri, the so-called "Bootheel" refers to the wedge of the state that juts down between Tennessee and Arkansas — a area that's been profiled by Side Effect's own Bram Sable-Smith, who covered a struggling rural hospital there in 2017.

When Corinne Standefer retires as a volunteer from the Lane Bloodworks in Eugene, Ore., this month, she will have donated 37 years of her life — and almost 19 gallons of blood.

The 89-year-old gave her first pint decades ago to help a friend who had cancer.

“When they called me and said ‘Could you donate again?’ I just started coming in,” she recalled.

Bianca Leigh is playing a character named Tia Lopez.

“Tia Lopez is a 36-year-old woman of trans experience. She works as a bartender. She’s in a two-year relationship with her boyfriend, and she has come for her annual physical,” Leigh explains.

Tippecanoe County, Indiana received state approval for a syringe exchange in late 2016, after county health officials raised the alarm about fast-rising rates of Hepatitis C, spread by sharing needles for injection drugs. As of July 2017, it has yet to open its doors.

Adults with a mental illness receive more than 50 percent of the 115 million opioid prescriptions in the United States annually, according to a study released Monday. The results prompted researchers to suggest that improving pain management for people with mental health problems “is critical to reduce national dependency on opioids.”

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Zika, the mosquito-borne virus that triggered public health alarm bells last summer, has receded from the spotlight. But, experts say, expect the virus to pose a renewed threat this year.

The Trump administration’s tough stance on immigration has some local health department officials worried it could spur cuts in federal funding and complicate a wide variety of programs, from efforts to battle the opioid epidemic to domestic violence initiatives.

The relationship between Indianapolis, in cash-strapped Marion County, and its affluent northern suburb of Carmel often draws comparisons with the famed rivalry between "Parks & Rec’s" fictional Pawnee and Eagleton.

Antionette Salifou is a school bus driver in Indianapolis. She recently went to a dentist because of a pain in her mouth. She was told she needed a root canal, and along with the other care she needed, it was going to cost $2000 -- way more than she can afford, since she doesn't have insurance to cover it. 

“It’s just hard to fit in there with paying bills and everything," she said.

Salifou’s problem is not uncommon. About one in three Americans lacks dental insurance, and those that have it still may not be getting the care they need.