Health

There’s a thing Texas Republican leadership could do. It would save the state money, keep its residents healthier and make Texas a more attractive place to live. It’s never going to happen, however, unless the politics in the state change drastically, enough that elected officials can swallow accepting one of…

The suicide of someone famous, like a Kate Spade or an Anthony Bourdain, ignites a hunt for clues in news media and in private conversations. Some can’t believe their celebrity heroes took their seemingly perfect lives. In the dash for answers to the difficult question of why a Spade or…

In less than two months, Dallas workers’ rights advocacy groups pushing for a citywide paid sick leave ordinance collected more than 110,000 signatures from Dallas residents in support of a referendum on the issue. If about half of those signatures — 60,000 or so — are verified by the Dallas…

Americans pay a high price for health care. The Global Burden of Disease Health Financing Collaborator Network collected data from 184 countries with similar life expectancies and found that the average American spends $9,237 per person for health care access, the most in the world. The struggle strikes both insured and…

Unsurprisingly, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas’ Republican leaders aren’t exactly pumped about efforts in several Texas cities to guarantee sick days for workers who don’t get them as benefits from their employers. Paxton intervened in a lawsuit Monday afternoon filed against the city of Austin — the first municipality to pass…

The worst flu season in recent memory finally appears on its way out the door in North Texas, according to new statistics from Dallas County Health and Human Services. Only five Dallas County residents were hospitalized for the flu during the week ending April 15, and for the second week…

In 2013, Kurt Johnsen started Simplified Genetics with $300,000. In 2017, the National Football League generated revenue of $14 billion. When a man sporting five zeroes butts heads with a corporation flexing nine, it’s no surprise who leaves with the migraine. “It’s really a shame,” Johnsen says between sips of…

My beautiful dog, Dorothy, looks gross. I know that. People know that. But Dorothy doesn’t know that. If she does, she doesn’t seem to care. No dog bounces around more, bites at her leash on the floor or makes coyote howls more than Dorothy when she thinks she’s in for…

Four more Dallas County residents have died from flu-related illnesses, bringing the total to 78 dead in one of the area’s worst flu seasons in decades, Dallas County Health and Human Services announced Monday. Each of the victims, who ranged from 66-94 years old, had an underlying high-risk health condition…

Solidifying a schism that spurred several fights during the last session of the Texas Legislature, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops announced late last week that the state’s Catholic parishes should cut off cooperation with Texas Right to Life, one of the state’s most influential anti-abortion organizations. According to the…

Five more Dallas County people have died from flu-related illness, bringing the total to 23 dead in one of the area’s worst flu seasons in decades, Dallas County Health and Human Services said Wednesday. Each of the victims, who ranged from 38 to 94 years old, had an underlying high-risk…

Zach Thompson, director of Dallas County Human Health and Human Services, is out of the job he held since 2003. Initial media reports Thursday afternoon indicated that Thompson planned to retire Jan. 31, but DCHHS spokeswoman Renae Crutchfield told the Observer that Thompson has been off the job since Dec. 29…

Dallas County suffered its sixth death of the 2017-18 flu season Tuesday, marking another low point in one of the worst flu seasons in decades, researchers say. While there are signs that Texas’ infection rate may have peaked around the holidays, the state and Dallas County aren’t out of the…

Just after Thanksgiving, Dallas County Health and Human Services announced that flu infections were on the rise in the county, publishing a report on an early November spike in specimens sent by the county to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testing positive for the flu. At the time,…

The birth of baby in Dallas to a woman with a transplanted uterus is a promising sign that the procedure, first successfully performed in Sweden in 2014, may open avenues for many more women unable to give birth, doctors at Baylor University Medical Center said Monday. The baby boy arrived…

Steven Apilado says he dreamed of Mister Rogers when he shot and killed his father two days after Thanksgiving in 2015. The dream, Apilado later told detectives, was like a TV commercial in which someone had thrown a tomato at Mister Rogers’ face. “I guess that was my dad getting…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday afternoon that an undocumented teenager living in a Texas federal detention center must immediately be allowed to terminate her pregnancy. The court’s decision reverses a decision made last week by a three-judge panel that blocked her from getting an abortion…

Dallas County Health and Human Services officials announced late Friday that the county has had its first death from West Nile virus in 2017. The deceased patient, unidentified because of health privacy laws, became the county’s first diagnosed case of West Nile in 2017 on July 14. According to the county,…

After warning two weeks ago that Dallas was on the edge of mosquito season, Dallas County Health and Human Services confirmed Thursday afternoon that it’s found West Nile virus, a sometimes-fatal mosquito-borne pathogen. Three mosquito traps in Balch Springs and Mesquite tested positive for the West Nile virus this week…