Public Health

The federal health department nominee has a history of spreading false information, but he could find a partner in Illinois on food regulations.

Federal officials have accepted an application that would grant St. Louis County’s three clinics special status that would add $6 million a year to the health department’s budget.

By fostering relationships with neighborhoods and community organizations that are already connected to young people, Wil Pinkney believes the City of St. Louis can better address the root causes of violence.

St. Louis has the highest rates of syphilis infection in the state. Local health officials want to slow the spread in parts of the city where resources are scarce.

After more than three years and thousands of COVID-19 deaths in Missouri, the end of the public health emergency heralds a new phase in which the virus is present but less dangerous to the general public.

In Missouri, the average person born in 2021 could expect to live to be 74.6 years old, a whole three years younger than the average age ten years ago. The state’s drop is part of a nationwide decline, though the life expectancy in Missouri is lower than the United States average.

“Almost every social movement of the 20th century has a bathroom story to it,” says historian Bryant Simon.

The Rev. Kenneth McKoy is St. Louis’ “pastor of the streets.” A new documentary that tells his story premieres July 17 at the St. Louis International Film Festival.

Researchers say even a small amount of the toxin can harm kids’ development. One 2021 study found Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri had some of the highest rates of elevated blood lead levels in children.

More than 650 people have been employed as community health workers in Illinois. Congress authorized $55 million for community health programs nationally during the pandemic. That funding will run out in June and neither the workers nor the communities they assist know what will happen next.