Health & Wellness News

Lehigh Valley Health Network warns that the triple threat of COVID, flu, and RSV could overwhelm health systems. Doctors are asking people to take extra precautions to protect themselves and avoid overwhelming hospitals.

Cetronia Ambulance Corps will hold a free health & wellness expo on Saturday, Nov. 12. It will feature hands-only CPR and stop-the-bleed demonstrations, car safety checks and more.

The city of Allentown is participating in National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. There are three area drop-off locations for unwanted or expired medications.

Carbon monoxide detectors have been added to the equipment carried by all full-time Allentown paramedics, weeks after dozens of people were hospitalized from a poisoning incident at a day care facility.

The Kindness Project expands into the Poconos as foster families need more resources to take in children. The non-profit offers free living essentials to kids in foster care.

Lehigh Valley Health Network is now scheduling appointments for the latest bivalent vaccine for kids as young as 5 years old. Parents have to make an appointment.

Bethlehem residents may soon be able to get permits to keep backyard chickens. Two committees agreed the concept is a good one, but some officials still worry about the spread of avian disease and other issues.

80 boxes were packed and handed out to kids across the Wilson Area School District.

Dr. Jose R. Torradas explains how the difference might look subtle, but Spanish-speaking doctors can make for more efficient and compassionate medicine.

Monkeypox is getting a name change in parts of the country, but the change has not made its way to the Lehigh Valley yet. New York City’s health department recently announced it now will refer to the infectious viral disease as MPV.

The Lehigh Valley now has one-stop shop for breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. St. Luke's University Health Network opened the first clinic of this kind in the country.

Two Allentown doctors who helped treat more than a dozen carbon monoxide-poisoned kids in are now sharing the story.

Members of Easton's Blueprint Communities organization announced their first project, a mural at Chubby's honoring South Side's past, present, and future, on Monday afternoon.

Northampton County and Northampton Community College will offer a free workplace safety training later this month aimed at employees of municipal governments, nonprofits and similar organizations.

The funding, through the Livable Landscape program, was unanimously approved at the county council’s June 18 meeting.

Legislators worked to establish penalties for xylazine use and trafficking in an attempt to lessen its presence in Pennsylvania's illicit drug supply. Some say doing so made way for a new, unclassified veterinary tranquilizer to take its place — medetomidine.

The tax and spending plan drew praise from Republicans for lowering taxes and funding border security, but Democrats condemned it for slashing Medicaid coverage and raising the deficit.

Nearly a year after the Biden administration designated xylazine as an "emerging threat" to the United States, Gov. Josh Shapiro classified it as a schedule III drug, making unauthorized possession a crime in Pennsylvania. Experts say the move has partly served to clear the way for new illicit substances to enter the drug market.

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.