The Columbian

Health Wire

20 percent of Washington suicides are veterans, here’s where veterans can find help

September 7, 2022, 10:41am Health

September marked the start of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and Sept. 4 the start of Suicide Prevention Awareness week in the United States. A month to raise awareness about suicide began in 2008, according to The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, which provides helpful resources and information, as does the… Read story

Smoke in the air? Washington health department offers these tips to stay safe

September 7, 2022, 10:38am Health

With Washington state in the middle of wildfire season, the Washington Department of Health urges residents to be prepared in case smoke is bad. Read story

This August 2022 photo provided by Pfizer shows vials of the company's updated COVID-19 vaccine during production in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Health officials: Get updated COVID-19 booster, flu shot

September 7, 2022, 7:49am Health Free

Health officials in Washington’s most populous county are urging people to get the new COVID-19 booster. Read story

FILE - Packaging for an electronic cigarette and menthol pods from Juul Labs is displayed on Feb. 25, 2020, in Pembroke Pines, Fla. In a deal announced Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022, electronic cigarette maker Juul Labs will pay nearly $440 million to settle a two-year investigation by 33 states into the marketing of its high-nicotine vaping products, which have long been blamed for sparking a national surge in teen vaping.

Juul to pay nearly $440M to settle states’ teen vaping probe

September 6, 2022, 11:14am Health

Electronic cigarette maker Juul Labs will pay nearly $440 million to settle a two-year investigation by 33 states into the marketing of its high-nicotine vaping products, which have long been blamed for sparking a national surge in teen vaping. Read story

Venessa Aiken holds her son Jahzir Robinson, five weeks old, outside their home Sunday, Aug. 21, 2022, in Orlando, Fla.

Medicaid extensions for new moms grow, may run into limits

September 5, 2022, 8:05am Health

States around the country are making it easier for new moms to keep Medicaid in the year after childbirth, a time when depression and other health problems can develop. Read story

Misty Castillo, left, and her husband Arcadio stand in front of their home, holding the urn containing the ashes of their son Arcadio Castillo III, who was shot in 2021 by Salem police, as their granddaughter Nala, age 2, looks out the window in Salem, Ore., Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022. Misty called 911 and asked for the police, saying her son was mentally ill, was assaulting her and her husband and had a knife. Less than five minutes later, a police officer burst into the house and shot him.

‘Tragic outcomes’: Mentally ill face fatal risk with police

September 5, 2022, 6:02am Health

One summer night, Misty Castillo stepped out of her house in Salem, called 911 and asked for the police, saying her son was mentally ill, was assaulting her and her husband and had a knife. Read story

Freddy Fernandez uses a device to monitor his blood oxygen level Friday, June 10, 2022, in Carthage, Mo. After contracting COVID-19 in August 2021, Fernandez spent months hooked up to a respirator and an ECMO machine before coming home in February 2022 to begin his long recovery from the disease.

Unraveling the interplay of omicron, reinfections and long COVID

September 4, 2022, 6:00am Health

The latest COVID-19 surge, caused by a shifting mix of quickly evolving omicron subvariants, appears to be waning, with cases and hospitalizations beginning to fall. Read story

In this photo provided by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, a person receives the Monkeypox vaccine at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation Monkeypox vaccine clinic in San Francisco. Two biopharmaceutical companies will give $5 million and $500,000, respectively, to nonprofit organizations in the United States and abroad that are responding to the growing monkeypox outbreak.

Limited funding hampers charities’ early monkeypox response

September 4, 2022, 5:12am Business

Two biopharmaceutical companies will give $5 million and $500,000, respectively, to nonprofit organizations in the United States and abroad that are responding to the growing monkeypox outbreak. The pledges come as the early philanthropic response to the disease, which disproportionately affects LGBTQ people, has been fairly muted compared with the… Read story

A person holds a syringe and an orange while learning how to administer Naloxone to an overdose victim, during an International Overdose Awareness Day gathering in Surrey, British Columbia, on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022.

Washington overdose deaths up 39 percent from 2019-2020

September 1, 2022, 8:56pm Health

The number of Washingtonians who died from drug overdoses jumped by 39 percent from 2019 to 2020, and preliminary data points to another increase in 2021, according to the Washington State Department of Health. Read story