public health

Whether federal cuts are legal is still undecided. But local health departments have closed clinics, stopped programs, cut immunization appointments, and laid off workers anyway.

Overdose deaths in Oregon went down 22% in 2024, the Oregon Health Authority announced on Friday. The decrease follows a nationwide trend of declining overdose deaths.

For 55 years, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has sent specialized teams of trained medical detectives into workplaces to investigate what could be making workers sick — everything from dust, fungus, asbestos and radiation. Now, dozens of these ongoing investigations have been canceled.

It’s an especially bad flu season, and whooping cough — or pertussis — is also causing many infections.

California officials have declared a state of emergency over the spread of bird flu, which is tearing through dairy cows in that state and causing sporadic illnesses in people in the U.S. That raises new questions about the virus, which has spread for years in wild birds, commercial poultry and many mammal species.

New data from the Oregon Health Authority show 1,833 people died from overdose deaths in 2023, an increase of 450 people from the previous year.

Farmworker advocates, health experts say more robust monitoring needed to prevent spread of illness

Pertussis, or whooping cough, is on the rise throughout Oregon, Washington and Idaho this year.

To balance the budget, Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing eliminating an annual $300 million payment to public health, instituted after COVID. Advocates warn it could leave us more susceptible to another disease threat.

Staff at a center in Medford serving vulnerable populations hosted a roundtable with the new Oregon Health Authority director to discuss challenges and solutions for health care in the Rogue Valley.

Nitrous oxide is used medically for sedation or pain relief and in restaurants to make whipped cream. It’s also used to get high.

Shasta County has finally hired a public health officer. The decision wasn’t without controversy.