Health and Sciences Story Archives - Page 3 of 3 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Trans Activists: New Law Could Block Gender Affirming Care For Inmates

The West Virginia Legislature passed Senate Bill 1009 in a special session earlier this week. The law prohibits the use of state funds for certain medical procedures or benefits that are not medically necessary for inmates.

On Friday, the West Virginia Trans Coalition hosted a rally protesting the law.

According to the protestors, it could give the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Billy Marshall, not physicians, final say on what is medically necessary. Trans activists like Deives Collins fear this law could be used to deny gender affirming care to inmates.

“I perceive this as a threat to us specifically, trans activists, saying, ‘Hey, we found a way to legally de-transition you if you find yourself on the wrong side of the law,” Collins said.

A Federal District Court for the Southern District of Illinois deemed trans affirming care as medically necessary and set the precedent that non-exports should not be decision makers when it comes to health care for transgender inmates.

Grant Transforming Neuroscience Research In W.Va.

The team aims to understand how certain mental stressors change the development of the brain and how it is wired.

The National Science Foundation will fund a project to expand the field of neuroscience throughout the Mountain State.

Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system, its functions and disorders. By studying these developments, researchers hope to learn how to identify changes in the brain and their causes leading to diseases like dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

West Virginia University (WVU) will receive $9.3 million as part of the project which includes Marshall University, West Virginia State University and Shepherd University, with the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (HEPC) heading up the initiative.

By increasing academic scientific research, making strategic faculty and staff hires, and adding state-of-the-art infrastructure to address the field’s most perplexing challenges, Randy Nelson, professor and chair of Neuroscience at West Virginia University, hopes to expand the region’s understanding of his field of study.

“I think the study of neuroscience is fundamentally important,” Nelson said. “The next frontier is understanding how the brain is wired, and how those connections develop, or maintain, is critical to understand how our brain works, how we perceive things, how we learn and memorize material out in the world.”

Nelson said he plans to study synaptic and circuit plasticity, which involve changes in neurons and the connections between them as the result of developmental or environmental changes.

“Understanding the mechanisms underlying how neural circuits are modeled, is important for typical brain development and maintenance,” Nelson said. “And then, once we understand how things work typically, then when things go south, we’re able to intervene.”

The team aims to understand how certain mental stressors change the development of the brain and how it is wired.

“Understanding how that might happen may help us understand how to prevent that from happening in a malnourish situation,” Nelson said. “These neural circuits develop and what might happen if they don’t develop correctly. So I think that the focus of this grant project is looking at typical function and development.”

The project also includes implementing education and development activities for students in K-12, as well as undergraduates at a collegiate level.

“I think it’ll help students going out and looking at any kind of career, whatever they’re interested in studying brain science, or they’re interested in engineering careers, or any kind of career now is going to be driven by an understanding of big datasets,” Nelson said. “I think what this does is provide fundamental information to make our students super competitive when they’re going out into the world after high school.”

There will also be a program to assist teachers in furthering their education. They can attend camps and learn about neuroscience and data coding and bring that knowledge back to their school.

The project will also involve undergraduates, offering some of them paid positions for this vital experience.

“I think what I really liked about this proposal is that it involves a lot of our new faculty, young faculty who have joined the department since we formed in 2018,” Nelson said. “They’re young and energetic, and they’re up to date with the newest techniques. And now we’re getting them the instrumentation necessary for them to be state of the art here in WVU, and working with our neuroscience colleagues at the other three institutions, going to strengthen neuroscience here and allow us to be playing with the national leaders.”

W.Va. Reports 23 More Virus Deaths, Toll Up 11 Percent In Past Week

West Virginia health officials have reported 23 deaths from the coronavirus, pushing the state’s toll 11 percent higher over the past week alone.

The Department of Health and Human Resources said the latest victims ranged in age from 55 to 99. Harrison and Mineral counties reported the deaths of three residents from each county.

In the past week, 11 virus-related deaths have been reported each from Mineral County, a county of about 27,000 people along the Maryland border, and in Marshall County, population 31,000 in the state’s northern panhandle bordering Ohio and Pennsylvania.

At least 758 deaths have been reported in West Virginia since the pandemic began.

The number of people in hospital intensive care units for the virus hit a record 166 on Monday, health officials said. Statewide the number of active virus cases reached a record 16,921, up 58 percent in the past two weeks.

Nearly 270,000 people have died nationwide from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

Numbers Of Children In Concentrated Poverty Increasing In West Virginia

West Virginia is one of ten states where the number of children living in areas of concentrated poverty is increasing. That’s according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s “Data Snapshot on High-Poverty Communities.”

Concentrated poverty is an area where 30 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

“In the United States, eight and a half million kids or 12 percent of the kids population in the United States are living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty,” said Scot Spencer, Associate Director for Advocacy and Influence at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. “That is an improvement from our first snapshot. But it still means that there are too many kids living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty.”

The Data Snapshot underscores that living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty undermines a child’s well-being. Nationwide, the number of people living in concentrated poverty is falling, but remains high. West Virginia is lower than the national average, but the numbers are rising.

Between the Casey Foundation’s last report in 2012 and the latest report using 2017 numbers, the number of children in West Virginia living in poverty rose from 30,000 to 38,000.

“Any kids living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty should be an unacceptable number for us. Because what it means for the long run is that their ability to succeed in life is truncated by living in these types of neighborhoods,” Spencer said.

West Virginia and Delaware are the only two states where poverty levels rose last year, according to U.S. Census data. The Mountain State’s overall poverty rate climbed to 19.1 percent last year, making it one of four states with a poverty rate above 18 percent.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re in an urban environment or suburban environment or a rural environment. There are parts of the economy that have left places,” Spencer said. “And so just by the fact that the jobs that were once family sustaining jobs are no longer there. People then fall into poverty and pockets of neighborhoods fall into poverty.”

Spencer didn’t have detailed information on specific locations in West Virginia. But indicators exist that point to which regions are struggling.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, 22 percent of the households in the 3rd Congressional District — which includes the southern coal fields — use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits.

Spencer also noted a lack of access to hospitals and the presence of food deserts in these areas can compound the problems.

“There may just not be places for kids to be kids and to play and to grow up and to do well. There’s a lack of access to quality education, the lack of access to quality housing, the lack of access to jobs,” he said.

Finding solutions to problems like concentrated poverty will involve federal, state and local governments working with the business sector and community groups, according to Spencer.

“How do we focus industry or sector specific job training and opportunities in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty so that people can actually make families sustaining wages? In places where there are large industries, how do they hire and contract locally? How does local government think about how they let their services or hire their contracts, so that they are actually hiring from the communities that they are in?” Spencer asked.

Spencer also notes that financial hardships can cause chronic stress linked to diabetes, heart disease and stroke — all major health problems in West Virginia.

Opioid Overdose Reversal Drug to be Distributed in W.Va.

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources announced today that efforts are underway to distribute naloxone to emergency first responders statewide.

All first responders will carry the opioid overdose reversal drug and will be trained on how to reduce overdose deaths in West Virginia. The DHHR has purchased a $1 million supply of naloxone, about 34,000 doses.

The DHHR’s statewide distribution of naloxone is not expected to be impacted by the FDA’s recall. The brand, Amphastar, will be used which is not included in the FDA’s recall of the brand Hospira.

The doses will be divided among the state police, the state fire marshal’s office and EMS response teams. The eight priority counties are Berkeley, Cabell, Harrison, Kanawha, Mercer, Monongalia, Ohio and Raleigh, each will receive 1,000 doses.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, head of the State Health Officer and Commissioner of DHHR’s Bureau for Public Health called the distribution a quote “significant step forward in the right direction” end quote in addressing the opioid crisis.

The distribution is part of Gov. Jim Justice’s opioid crisis plan. The state legislature authorized the purchase of the kits. Distribution will continue through the end of June.