Health & Wellness News

If you get a special card in the mail, it means your mailperson can pick up food donations from your home, and take it straight to the food bank.

Lehigh Valley high school students had the opportunity to see firsthand what it's like to be a nurse. A nursing simulation was held during National Nurses Week.

A plan two years in the making is proving to be successful in Allentown. Nurses for the city and the district worked together to make sure students are safe from preventable disease.

Mattel has marketed a Barbie doll that represents those with Down syndrome.

The Palmer Recovery Center is the site of a free trauma-informed yoga class every Wednesday evening at 5:30 p.m. The class helps veterans with their mental health struggles.

The U.S. surgeon general issued a public health advisory about loneliness, isolation and lack of connection. The health consequences are enormous — equivalent by some estimates to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

Lehigh Valley Mental Health Awareness Walk offers the public education and resources. Behavioral health needs are growing.

The $25,000 fund, offered by Lehigh and Northampton counties, will be used to support the schools' Aevidum program.

Lehigh Valley Health Network names two new presidents in their system. One is the President of the Lehigh Valley Hospital Cedar Crest campus and the Lehigh Region. The other is the President of the LVH–Muhlenberg campus and the Northampton Region.

Local health networks agree the virus is still here, still harmful. Another vaccine could help.

On July 1, the Girls on the Run Lehigh Valley and Pocono chapters will merge.

Tick season is here, and there seem to be more of the little buggers. Doctors say they already are seeing patients with tick-related illnesses this year.

Proposed federal budget cuts would impact programs such as the free summer meal program for children in the Allentown School District.

The $2.75 million payment to the federal government resolves allegations that a pharmacy technician stole controlled substances on about 40 occasions and the health network failed to institute proper controls.

Despite not being approved for human consumption, veterinary tranquilizers are infiltrating the illicit drug supply in Pennsylvania. Harm reduction specialists and health care professionals say these overdoses can't be approached solely with naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug.

A generous donation from a Lehigh Valley native and others funds free swim lessons for children and adults in the River Crossing YMCA's Safety Around Water, or SAW, swim education program.

The bill would limit the manufacture, sale, distribution and use of firefighting foam containing PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, beginning in 2026.

Xylazine, an animal-grade tranquilizer that's not approved for human use, has taken Pennsylvania's illicit drug supply by storm. Known on the streets as "tranq," it accounted for almost 1 in 4 overdose deaths in Pennsylvania by 2023. Last year in Lehigh County, it was a contributing cause of death in 20 of the 112 deadly overdoses, or 17.9 percent of cases.

The funding comes from the commonwealth’s Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure program, a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Known as "tranq" on the streets, an animal tranquilizer named xylazine infiltrated drug supplies throughout Pennsylvania since 2019. Its presence in the Lehigh Valley has grown, with deadly consequences.

A regionwide wastewater plan and a hazard mitigation plan both advanced with staff review approvals by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission on Thursday night.

With the Lehigh Valley under an extreme heat warning through Wednesday, area doctors are urging residents to keep hydrated and stay cool.

The U.S. Senate could vote on the proposed One Big Beautiful Bill Act this week. If passed, millions of Americans would lose access to Medicaid and SNAP benefits in order to fund border security and tax cuts to wealthy Americans.

The anti-violence program is funded through a $1.28 million grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. The program will continue next school year.