PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/tag/care-of-children-and-elderly/)
For every 100 mothers who have hepatitis C, about six newborns will contract the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC].
But since transmission rates are low compared to hepatitis B or HIV, hospitals aren’t testing high-risk babies.
Big Pharma has written more than $30 billion in checks in the last 10 years to resolve government allegations of illegal marketing practices, according to statistics compiled by the consumer watchdog group Public Citizen. Nine drug manufacturers each forked over at least $900 million from 2006 through 2015.
In Pennsylvania, 181,000 children have had a parent incarcerated in their lifetime, according to a new nationwide study. That’s roughly 7 percent of the state’s children, according to a survey of data by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, which outlines the collateral consequences of mass incarceration on families and calls for urgent reforms by judges, prisons and governments to break cycles of poverty.
Health Women in Pennsylvania are making long journeys for pregnancy care and delivery. According to the state Department of Health’s annual hospital survey, from 2004 to 2014, the commonwealth lost 28 obstetric units — colloquially known as maternity wards or delivery rooms — from a total of 124 units, a 23-percent decline.
Problems with a state program that provides low-income seniors with help on their prescription bills include no-bid contracts and almost zero oversight, according to an audit released this week by Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.
For years, parents and teachers were taught the best way to deal with racial differences in the classroom was to pretend they didn’t exist.
A recent study in Texas that has broader implications about health care for children in low-income families shows that parents of more than half of the state’s uninsured Latino and black children don’t realize their kids could be eligible for Medicaid or state health coverage.
Beginning in July, the Pennsylvania Department of Health will collect data about all babies born addicted to opioids.
The longstanding problem is that data are scarce about the number of babies born dependent on drugs, according to a joint WITF/ NPR story. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services [DHS] Secretary Ted Dallas said the department has relied on “reasonably good” estimates.
About 3,700 babies on Medicaid were born with neonatal abstinence syndrome between 2013 and 2014 in the state, according to WITF.
Juvenile justice experts described to a panel of lawmakers Friday the potential dangers pyschotropic medications pose to vulnerable youth.
They didn’t stop at explaining the problem either.
With a dozen lawmakers in one room for the third-annual Children & Youth Disability & Mental Health Summit, they made pleas for additional funding, data collection and transparency.
Many potential patients looking into home health care agencies in the state may wonder at the conflicting ratings: a three out of five stars from Medicare, and a five out of five from patient satisfaction surveys.
