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Martin County Health Department offering Well Child Visits through EPSDT
BY DOROTHY DILLON The Martin County Health Department is now offering Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) services, also known as Well Child Visits. These visits are a free, comprehensive healthcare program available to children and teens under 21 who are enrolled in Medicaid. Well Child Visits help ensure that children receive regular
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Healthy Happenings: Schedule your child’s vaccinations now
BY DOROTHY DILLON School is just around the corner. Is your child up to date on routine vaccinations? Vaccines help protect your child from serious diseases like measles, whooping cough and polio—and they are required for school attendance. Time is running out, so do not wait. Call (606) 298-7752 to schedule your child’s vaccine appointment with
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Tips on skin cancer prevention, water safety and heat protection
BY MELISSA PATRICK KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS With the first official day of summer behind us, it’s time to think about how to stay safe from some of the health risks that come from spending time in the great outdoors. “Summer is a time for fun and relaxation, but it’s also a season when health risks
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Kentucky has ‘very high’ rate of respiratory illness
BY MELISSA PATRICK KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS Kentucky is seeing a “very high” rate of respiratory illness, especially among children. “We are seeing somewhere between 10 to 20 patients each day in the children’s hospital needing admissions,” Dr. Lindsay Ragsdale, chief medical officer for Kentucky Children’s Hospital, said at an online press conference on Jan. 17. Statewide,
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Treatment and prevention of childhood obesity starts at home
BY DR. SAMIR SOFTIC and DR. AURELIA RADULESCU UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY In the United States, one in five children are obese. (In Kentucky, that rate is closer to one in four.) Obesity is a chronic disease with many contributing factors, including family history, access to healthy foods, hormonal and metabolic conditions and even environmental factors
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Kentucky child-care providers face uncertain future when federal funding expires
BY NADIA RAMLAGAN KY NEWS CONNECTION Child-care providers in Kentucky are bracing for severe funding cuts when $330 million in annual federal funding expires in September. A recent survey of hundreds of child-care directors in the Commonwealth shows most expect to raise tuition rates and cut staff pay. Research shows kids who have access to
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Seasonal respiratory illness in Kentucky declined for three weeks
Numbers still considered elevated BY MELISSA PATRICK KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS Emergency department visits and hospital admissions for respiratory disease in Kentucky have dropped for three weeks in a row, but the Kentucky Department for Public Health still considers the rate of respiratory virus activity to be elevated and the number of hospitalizations to be high.
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Bill to ban transgender health or mental-health care of minors in Kentucky has a head of steam in the state House
BY MELISSA PATRICK KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS A far-reaching anti-transgender bill filed Tuesday, Feb. 21, was assigned to a legislative committee the same day it was filed, has received the first of three required readings and already has 20 co-sponsors. House Bill 470, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy (Shelby County), says: “The provision of gender
