Health

As of last week, Michigan officially has the deadliest of several hepatitis A outbreaks going on nationwide.

According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, at least 22 people have died from outbreak-related cases since August 2016.

The state is advising Michigan residents to beware of  third parties if they are seeking a medical marijuana registry card.

According to a recent announcement from the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Michiganders who want to register as medical marijuana patients should apply directly to the state.

The Department warned that using third parties can delay applications and increase the possibility of fraudulent submissions and misuse of documents.

A lot more Michigan residents are going to be told they need to bring down their blood pressure under new national hypertension guidelines.

In fact, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, an additional one million Michiganders -- or about 10% of the state population -- are now considered to have high blood pressure. 

That's because the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association have redefined high blood pressure as starting at a reading of 130 systolic over 80 diastolic. The previous definition was 140/90.

A new report finds Michigan is falling short of being prepared to respond to a health emergency.

John Auerbach is the president and CEO of Trust for America's Health. 

He says the Trust’s latest “Ready or Not” report finds Michigan meeting only three of ten main recommendations on public health preparedness.

Auerbach says it’s important that states like Michigan prepare now for future health threats.

Detroit is trying to fight a hepatitis A outbreak in the face of limited resources and low national vaccine supplies.

Detroit health department director Dr. Joneigh Khaldun talked about the city’s efforts to fight an outbreak of the viral liver disease on a conference call with other local and national health leaders Tuesday.

Michigan is one of a handful of states experiencing hepatitis A outbreaks right now. Michigan’s is one of the largest, with 610 cases and 20 deaths reported since August 2016.

The number of government lawsuits against prescription opioid makers and distributors is rising rapidly.

"There are over a hundred that have been filed by state governments, federal governments, local governments, and then Native American tribes,” said Rebecca Haffajee, assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health.

Haffajee thinks those lawsuits could be an effective tool in the fight against the opioid epidemic, as she wrote in a recent New England Journal of Medicine article. 

The window to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act is smaller this year, but that hasn't slowed enrollment in Michigan.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 153,241 Michigan residents were signed up for health insurance through HealthCare.gov as of December 9. 

That's a 16 percent jump from the same time last year, when 131,989 were signed up. 

A spike in hepatitis A cases has prompted the Genesee County Health Department to start a telephone hotline to keep residents up-to-date.

The hotline provides information like symptoms of the infection, how it's transmitted, and where to get vaccines.

The latest testing shows lead levels in Flint tap water continue to decline.

The Department of Environmental Quality's George Krisztian says the latest testing shows lead levels at about five parts per billion.  That’s well below the 15 parts per billion federal threshold.

Speaking to the Flint Water Interagency Coordinating Committee on Friday, Krisztian said Flint is getting to the point where the system has recovered.

Vaccine waiver rates for school-age children have increased slightly in Michigan.

The Detroit News reports that Department of Health and Human Services data shows 3.2% of kindergartners and seventh-graders received immunization waivers in 2016 compared to 3.1% the year before.

Michigan is having a hepatitis A outbreak, and state health officials are encouraging those most at risk of getting it to get vaccinated. But the state also faces dwindling supplies of the hepatitis A vaccine.

A new report says Michigan’s death rate from suicide, alcohol and drug use is poised to skyrocket over the next decade.

The report, Pain in the Nation, examines the effect of rising death rates related to drug use, alcohol abuse and suicide.

According to the report, Michigan’s death rate from these three preventable reasons is expected to soar 44% between now and 2025. That would lift Michigan’s death rate to 20th in the country. 

More people were sickened this week, and another person died in the ongoing hepatitis A outbreak in southeast Michigan.

495 cases have been reported since the outbreak began in the summer of 2016. 416 of those cases involved hospitalization. 

The numbers continue to rise despite public health efforts to vaccinate those at higher risk, and to educate people about how this virus strain is being spread -- person-to person, via lax hygiene and close contact.

Lead poisoning in Kent County is up nearly 31% from 2014 to 2016.

According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, 615 children in the county had elevated blood-lead levels last year.

Paul Haan, executive director of the Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan, a non-profit that tries to help children stay healthy by avoiding harmful housing conditions, says drinking water isn't the cause for the increase in Kent County, but lead-based paint is.

A public health coordination center is being activated, after indications that a regional hepatitis A outbreak could spread to other parts of the state. 

Most of the 457 people who have contracted hepatitis A since last summer live in southeast Michigan. But a few recent cases have been reported in counties in the thumb, as well as Ingham County. 370 people have been hospitalized since the outbreak began, and 18 people have died.

The state's Community Health Emergency Coordination Center supports public health groups on the front lines of fighting disease outbreaks, providing expertise, guidance and educational materials. The center was last activated in response to the Flint Water Crisis. It was also activated during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic.

Michigan has 14 times more hepatitis A cases than it did last year at this time, say epidemiologists with the state Department of Health and Human Services.

The outbreak, which is mainly in southeast Michigan, has sickened 457 people.  Of those, 370 have been hospitalized and 18 have died. 

The outbreak is complicated.  There's no single source such as food contamination - and many groups of people are at risk, including homeless people, drug users, people who are neither, and now there are more cases among men who have sex with men.