As Kentucky's pandemic numbers catch up with the holiday weekend, they jump; state's positive-test rate is now 8.31%

State Dept. for Public Health map, adapted by Kentucky Health News; for a larger version, click on it. By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Kentucky's coronavirus metrics took another jump Tuesday, with new cases and the share of Kentuckians testing positive up, and the fallout from that reflected in hospitalizations...

Read More

State's positive-test rate above 8%; Beshear and Biden say new Omicron variant creates cause for concern, but not panic

Ky. Dept. for Public Health map, adapted by Ky. Health News; to enlarge, click on it. By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News The share of Kentuckians testing positive for the coronavirus in the last seven days is 8.14%, more than a full percentage point higher since the state's last pandemic report the day before...

Read More

Ky. ranks first in lung-cancer cases, and low in survival and early diagnosis, but prevention, screening and treatment are easier now

At 89 cases per 100,000 residents, Kentucky is No. 1 in the rate of new lung cancer cases. The national rate is 58. (Map from the American Lung Association 2021 State of Lung Cancer report) By Melissa PatrickKentucky Health News Lung Cancer Awareness Month falls in November, but in Kentucky the promotion of prevention...

Read More

Omicron could be more contagious than Delta, but experts say it's unlikely to be completely resistant to vaccines; research needed

By Meryl Kornfield, Adela Suliman, Christine Armario and María Luisa Paúl The Washington Post A new variant of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 is raising concern around the world. South Africa confirmed Thursday that it had detected a variant with many mutations that could make it more transmissible than the Delta variant, and adept at evading the body’s immune defenses. On Friday, the World Health Organization labeled it a “variant...

Read More

TV commercials from aging quarterbacks and others for private Medicare plans don't tell the whole story, such as high deductibles

Joe Namath, in image from Medicare Advantage TV commercial aired in Fall 2020 By Trudy Lieberman It seems nothing ever changes when it comes to hawking insurance to fill gaps in Medicare coverage. The fervent sales pitches, the misinformation, and the incomplete and deceptive information continue to proliferate. For...

Read More

Another reason to get the Covid-19 vaccine: Every case of the coronavirus is an opportunity for the virus to mutate

hopkinsmedicine.org photo Every case of the coronavirus -- whether in an adult or a child and whether it is symptomatic or not -- gives the virus another opportunity to mutate.  "David O'Connor, a virology expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he likens infections to "lottery tickets that...

Read More

Anchorman Sam Dick retires at Lexington's WKYT-TV; went public with his prostate cancer, surely saving the lives of others

Sam Dick goes public with his cancer. (WKYT-TV image Tuesday, from broadcast several years ago) Sam Dick, a familiar face to millions of Kentuckians over a record 34 years as evening anchor on Lexington television, did his last newscast Wednesday night. Thousands of Kentuckians remembered him as the man who used...

Read More

Pandemic on a two-day plateau going into four-day holiday period, but leading indicator, positive-test rate, goes above 7%

New York Times map, adapted by Ky. Health News; click it to enlarge or here for interactive version. By Al Cross Kentucky Health News The pandemic in Kentucky mostly plateaued Wednesday as the nation began a long holiday weekend offering many more opportunities for the coronavirus to spread, especially among the unvaccinated. The...

Read More

Kentucky is one of seven states to get grants from Bloomberg to fight the record-setting epidemic of opioid overdoses

Kentucky is among seven states that will get millions of dollars from Bloomberg Philanthropies to fight the opioid-overdose epidemic. Gov. Andy Beshear announced the $10 million grant to the state "with the goal of reducing overdoses and saving lives by increasing access to medications and expanding preventative services,"...

Read More

Fewer than 8% of overdose survivors are given or prescribed drugs that can block overdose and help them fight addiction

Buprenorphine is given with naloxone to stop overdose, and alone as drug treatment. As deaths from opioid overdoses continue to set records in Kentucky and the nation, a new study has found that less than 8 percent of overdose patients in U.S. emergency departments are not given or prescribed two medicines that can...

Read More

Pandemic numbers continue to tick up, especially Covid-19 hospitalizations; 53 more deaths reported, raising recent average

State Dept. for Public Health map, adapted by Kentucky Health News; to enlarge, click on it. By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News As Kentucky heads into a cold Thanksgiving weekend that is sure to keep family gatherings indoors, the metrics to measure the coronavirus continue to go up -- cases are up, the...

Read More

Coronavirus cases, positive-test rate and hospitalizations keep rising in Ky., creating more risk as Thanksgiving approaches

State Department for Public Health graph, adapted by Kentucky Health News; click on it to enlarge. By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News In the last week, coronavirus cases, the share of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus, and Covid-19 hospitalizations all went up again. "Though we don't necessarily...

Read More

Exercise increases the body's cannabis-like substances, which can help reduce chronic inflammation, English study shows

Photo: Shutterstock Exercise can reduce chronic inflammation by increasing the body's own cannabis-like substances, which have the potential to treat conditions ranging from arthritis to cancer to heart disease. In a study published in Gut Microbes, researchers from the University of Nottingham in England split 78...

Read More

Not sure how to talk about Covid-19 vaccines with loved ones? Nurses offer a guide to 'productive conversations'

The American Association of Critical Care Nurses' guide to productive conversations about Covid-19 vaccines Covid-19 vaccines are likely to be a topic of conversation during the holidays, which could bring tension to family gatherings. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses created a guide to...

Read More

Estill County paramedic and EMS trainer is recognized as 'Community Star' on National Rural Health Day

Shelia Wise, a paramedic and training major at Estill County EMS in Irvine, has been recognized today by the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health  as a “Community Star” for her community education efforts and her work in helping to shape her hometown EMS service into what she considers one of the best in the state. Wise, who began a career in accounting before switching  to EMS in the 1990s, holds just about every instructor...

Read More

Outgoing National Institutes of Health director says disinformation, misinformation are fueling distrust in science and 'Truth is losing'

Francis Collins, head of the National Institutes of Health, and Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH photo) By Rachel Roubein The Washington Post National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins has a stern message for the American public: The country has an epidemic...

Read More

The sooner you quit smoking, the better off your lungs will be; but the sooner you start, the higher will be your risk of cancer death

Photo: Getty Images/Wavebreakmedia Smoking's negative health consequences are well known, but smokers can reduce―or even erase―their risk of dying from lung cancer by quitting at a young age, and the younger the better. A new study led by the American Cancer Society analyzed data on more than 410,000 Americans...

Read More

Rural Americans are the most likely to say the pandemic is over, and least likely to take precautions against it

The Atlantic/Leger poll was conducted Nov. 5-7. Click the image to enlarge or click here for the rest of the report. Though the coronavirus remains entrenched in rural areas, rural Americans are more likely than their suburban or urban peers to have rejected or given up on social distancing, masking...

Read More

Health commissioner says to expect more coronavirus surges, so it's important to keep encouraging vaccines despite resistance

Steven Stack, M.D. By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Kentucky will continue to see coronavirus surges from time to time, and because Covid-19 still has the potential to overwhelm the health-care system, it's too early to start treating it as just another infection to live with, state Health Commissioner Steven...

Read More

Coronavirus new-case rate goes up 7.9% in one day; state clears backlog of Covid-19 deaths and adds 212 to pandemic total

Ky. Health News graph; case numbers are from initial, unadjusted daily reports; click to enlarge. By Al Cross Kentucky Health News As the rate of new coronavirus cases in Kentucky jumped almost 8 percent in one day, state officials cleared a backlog of Covid-19 deaths, adding 212 to Kentucky's toll and bringing the...

Read More

Beshear urges 'immediacy' when it comes to getting a Covid-19 vaccine or booster shot, as Thanksgiving nears

Kentucky Department for Public Health graph, adapted by Kentucky Health News By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News As coronavirus infection rates in Kentucky kept inching up, Gov. Andy Beshear kept urging Kentuckians to get a Covid-19 vaccine or a booster and to do it before Thanksgiving: Thursday, Nov. 25. Asked...

Read More