Mosquitoes in York County have tested positive for West Nile virus, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. State health officials announced this week that an adult from Cumberland County was diagnosed with the virus and are now cautioning Mainers to take steps to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes. Maine’s Health and Environmental Testing […]
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Paul LePage vetoes funding for lead abatement program
AUGUSTA — As part of his effort to undermine a minimum wage hike approved by Maine voters in 2016, Gov. Paul LePage vetoed a spending bill Monday that includes $4 million for a lead abatement program aimed at alleviating a serious public health issue in Lewiston and Auburn. Lewiston and Auburn are considered among the […]
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Compromise in Augusta includes $4 million for program to deal with lead paint
AUGUSTA — A budget deal worked out among legislative leaders Monday includes a $4 million lead abatement program that would significantly boost efforts to combat a health issue that is especially severe in Lewiston and Auburn. “I’m pretty pumped” to learn the program made the cut, said Rep. Jared Golden, a Lewiston Democrat who has […]
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Maine drug deaths remain high in early 2018, with fentanyl on the rise
The number of people killed by drug overdoses in Maine during the first three months of the year fell slightly from last year, state authorities said Friday. Between January and March, 86 people died of overdoses, down from 89 such deaths during the same time period in 2017, according to the offices of the Maine […]
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Maine influenza cases worst in five years
Maine suffered its worst influenza season in at least five years, with 9,018 cases reported in 2017-18, an increase of more than 50 percent from last season. The flu season runs from October through late May, and the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention wrapped up its annual flu season weekly reports last week. The agency […]
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Vaccination opt-out rate rising among Maine kindergartners
Maine’s vaccination coverage for students entering kindergarten worsened in 2017-18, making outbreaks of preventable diseases such as measles, chicken pox and pertussis more likely. Five percent of kindergartners – about 600 students of the 12,500 in that grade – attended school this year without getting required vaccines because their parents opted out on philosophic or […]
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Why you should ask your kids about juuling
At a high school in Maryland’s capital city of Annapolis, the principal ordered doors removed from bathrooms to keep students from sneaking hits in the stalls. A school system in New Jersey installed detectors in its high schools to digitally alert administrators to students looking for their next “rip.” And recently in Fairfax County, Virginia, […]
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Maine restaurants improvise amid E. coli outbreak from romaine lettuce
If it’s not made with romaine lettuce, is it still a Caesar salad? Some local restaurants are setting aside culinary correctness during the romaine lettuce E. coli scare, erring on the side of caution by substituting other varieties of lettuce for romaine on their menus until they are given the all-clear in a recent outbreak […]
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Lawmakers pass measure to try to prevent youth suicides
AUGUSTA — A measure to help prevent youth suicide secured unanimous backing in the Legislature this week with the goal of preventing other families from going through the heartache that Matt and Rosie Graham of Lewiston felt last year when their depressed 13-year-old daughter Anie killed herself. The bill requires the Maine Department of Education […]
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Worst epidemic in the history of Maine
A hundred years ago, as winter gave way to spring in Kansas, a particularly virulent strain of influenza struck some overcrowded Army camps, filling the infirmaries and straining the ability of doctors and nurses to cope. Few outsiders noticed and most of the men recovered. As quickly as the flu struck, it faded. But when […]