With 22-percent of Louisiana adults currently smoking, the American Lung Association believes the state has a lot of work to do when it comes to tobacco prevention. Emelie Gunn has more…
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The story about a 3-year-old Brazilian girl who had a large, rare tumor removed from her face by doctors in Shreveport is making national headlines. Michelle Southern reports…:
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The American Lung Association’s annual State of Tobacco Control report finds Louisiana is failing in efforts to reduce tobacco use. An estimated 22-percent of Louisiana adults smoke. Regional Policy Director Ashley Lyerly (Liar-lee) says the report assigned F letter grades in the areas like tobacco taxes and access to cessation programs.
The report gave another F to the state when it comes to funding for prevention programs. Lyerly says Louisiana should be spending about 60 million dollars on tobacco prevention each year but total funding for this fiscal year is only 8 million dollars. She says the state also received an F grade when it comes to tobacco taxes, even though it recently increased to $1.08.
Louisiana received a B grade for the strength of smoke-free workplace laws. But Lyerly says they recommend the state increase the minimum age for the sale of tobacco products.
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Louisiana isn’t seeing as many flu cases as we usually do this time of year. That’s according to the state’s flu bug expert, Dr. Frank Welch, who says right now, 4 out of every 100 doctor visits in the state is for the flu. He says there’s several reasons we’re seeing a slower flu season this year.
Welch says while the Deep South has seen few cases, other states are seeing an uptick. But he says we aren’t out of the woods yet. He anticipates cases will pick up, once the weather gets colder, which will happen this weekend.
Welch advises everyone to get their flu shots to avoid getting the flu and to avoid spreading it to others. He says there are plenty of ways for people to stay well this flu season.
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The Louisiana Department of Insurance announces they recovered $7.6 million for policy holders last year as a result of efforts by their consumer affairs division who work to resolve consumer complaints. Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon says that money is in addition to what companies offered to pay customers, and it’s a significant increase over the previous year.
Donelon credits the increase in recovered funds for consumers to a reorganizing within the insurance department two years ago. He says they moved all of the people who handle consumer complaints into the same section, as opposed to dividing them up between health, life and annuities, property, etc.
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Donelon says it’s the state’s responsibility to make sure insurance companies fulfill the promises they make to their policyholders. He says they’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that Louisiana customers are treated fairly, including yanking a license or taking punitive action against an insurance provider.
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Policyholders can file complaints at 1-800-259-5300 or online at ldi.la.gov/fileacomplaint.
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The story about a 3-year-old Brazilian girl who had a large, rare tumor removed from her face by doctors in Shreveport is making national headlines. It all started when Dr. Celso Palmieri at LSU Health Shreveport was reading an online publication from his home country. He says he ran across a Brazlian article about little Melyssa Delgado Braga
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Palmieri says he found the family on Facebook after only an hour of searching and was able to contact them. Dr. G.E. Ghali is the chair of the Department of oral and facial surgery at the hospital. He diagnosed Melyssa with a benign tumor that is locally very aggressive…:
They say several organizations, doctors and the community came together to help the family get here. While Melyssa will still require some follow up surgeries as she gets older, doctors say she now has full use of her tongue unlike before. Dr. Ghali says she had been well on her way to becoming a malnourished child because of the tumor…:
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Louisiana has issued a standing order to make naloxone available without a prescription. Naloxone is an antidote that reverses an opioid overdose. Chief Medical Officer for Louisiana Medicaid, Dr. SreyRam Kuy, (Sray-rum- Kuh-ee) says the standing order is a way to reduce unnecessary deaths…
Kuy says the naloxone drug can be injected into muscle or administered through the nose. She says the best part about receiving the drug over the counter is that anyone can administer the drug to someone suffering from an overdose, not just a medical practitioner.
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