At some Arizona schools, more than 30 percent of children haven’t been vaccinated against such dangerous infectious diseases as whooping cough and measles. Parents, state Representative Juan Mendez says, have a right to know which ones. The Arizona Department of Health lists vaccination rates for kindergarten and sixth-grade children online for…
Don’t freak out, but the Zika virus is more than likely headed to Arizona. So far, about 30 cases have been reported in the United States, but all but one (an unlucky Texan who appears to have contracted the disease through sexual intercourse with her infected husband) were travelers who…
Striking Phoenix bus drivers admit that they’re starting to worry about how the strike is affecting their lives, but they say they’re not willing to give up. “Even though I don’t have money, I couldn’t face my fellow workers knowing I let them down,” said Vanessa Washington, a driver and…
A few years ago, Debbie Allen’s teenage daughter ran away from her Tucson home. The 18-year-old returned home pregnant and addicted to drugs. “With her being a runaway and being on drugs, it wasn’t a complete shock when she came and told us she was pregnant,” Allen says. “When she…
Will you live a long life? Or die young? That may depend, in part, on your neighborhood. People who live in South Phoenix’s 85004 zip code, for example, have an average life expectancy of 71, according to a new study. But just 12 miles away in Scottsdale’s 85258 zip code…
Arizona is the second worst state in the country at addressing mental-health issues, according to a new study from the nonprofit Mental Health America. To determine the ranking, Mental Health America analyzed the prevalence of mental illness in each state and the District of Columbia using statistics on adults and…
Simon Kunesh arrives at his physical therapy appointment hanging from his mother’s neck, arms locked, swinging back and forth like a pendulum. She’s prying at his fingers, trying to put him down, but he stubbornly has retracted his long, spindly legs and flexed his feet to avoid touching the floor…
Researchers in Phoenix have found genes identified with Broken-Heart Syndrome, a severe heart condition that appears during times of intense stress. The discovery could lead to better treatments for patients who are at risk for the problem, officially known as stress-induced cardiomyopathy, (SIC), say scientists at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix…
Lying in a hospital bed, Phoenix resident Kit Kloeckl was deathly ill and could barely breathe. He had contracted pneumonia, but the treatment wasn’t working, and he was getting sicker. After a battery of tests, an infectious-disease specialist entered his hospital room with a grim expression on his face. “You’re…
Standing on the sidewalk outside the Arizona Department of Health Services building in Phoenix, midwife Wendi Cleckner addressed the crowd of about 200 men and women—many cradling babies or holding protest signs. “What we want is safe birth in Arizona,” said Cleckner, president of the Arizona Association of Midwives, which…
The percentage of Arizona children who don’t have health insurance is shrinking, but, for the fifth year in a row, the state remains among the worst in the nation for access to care, according to a new report from Georgetown University. Ten percent of Arizona children were uninsured in 2014,…
Arizona babies are the least likely in the country to be vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest immunization survey. About 84 percent of the state’s children between the ages of 19 and 35 months have received the MMR shot,…
Arizona is calling in U.S. health officials to investigate an outbreak of the rare — and sometimes fatal — mosquito-borne illness St. Louis Encephalitis. Nationally, there are typically only about 20 cases of St. Louis Encephalitis annually, said Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine, medical director for the Disease Control Division at the…
The director of the Arizona Department of Health Services has asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit challenging a new abortion law requiring doctors to advise women that a chemical abortion can be reversed because it hasn’t hurt anyone yet. The lawsuit, brought by a group of physicians…
Arizona officials have agreed to delay the implementation of a new abortion law requiring doctors to tell women that medication-induced abortions may be reversed until federal courts can review it. Three Arizona doctors and Planned Parenthood, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit earlier this month contending…
The American Civil Liberties Union, along with Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights, filed suit in federal court today to block an Arizona law requiring doctors to tell patients it is possible to reverse a medication-induced abortion. Arguing that there is “no credible medical evidence” that supports the…
For the first time in more than a decade, the percentage of Arizona kindergartners getting exempted from vaccinations by their parents actually went down. The Arizona Department of Health Services reports this week that 4.6 percent of the state’s kindergartners this year haven’t been vaccinated due to a parent’s personal…
“I don’t know what’s going on,” said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio after police busted into a squalid Wittman mobile home Wednesday to find 54 dogs and 18 cats crawling over urine-stained furniture. One striped cat, nestled inside an old, cardboard produce box, was nursing three Chihuahua puppies. Another lay…
Within a week, Governor Doug Ducey is expected to say yay or nay to a proposal that would block the state from cooperating with the Affordable Care Act. Among other things, House Bill 2643 would prohibit Arizona from building a state-run healthcare exchange — a move that some say could…
The outbreak of measles in Arizona is likely over. Health officials counted seven confirmed cases of measles in Arizona stemming from the outbreak at Disneyland late last year and have been waiting over the past three weeks to determine whether anyone else developed measles. It can take up to 21…
Chalk one up for patient rights: the Arizona Court of Appeals has opened the door for people to sue prescription-drug companies under the state’s consumer fraud act. Previously, the court held pharmaceutical companies liable for warning doctors about dangerous side effects — but not the people who were actually taking…
A Phoenix-area doctor who’s received national media attention for his stance against vaccinating children, is under investigation by one of the state’s medical boards. Dr. Jack Wolfson, a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, is under investigation by the Arizona Board of Osteopathic Examiners for several recent complaints, the agency confirmed to…
