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Mountain State Spotlight explains: How needle exchanges work in West Virginia
With West Virginia’s multiple recent HIV outbreaks and overdose crisis that has impacted residents for decades, many health experts believe the state is in dire need of needle exchange programs. But...
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The federal fix for silica dust understates what we found: thousands of coal...
The gravesite in Danny Smith’s vast and verdant yard is shaded by hulking trees. His parents’ graves are adjacent and marked by a massive headstone. In summer, crickets chirp, birds sing, and leaves...
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‘This stuff is killing me’: After decades of delay, new black lung...
Over a decade into retirement, Danny Johnson still considers himself a coal miner. It was such a part of his identity that when his only daughter got married, he walked her down the aisle wearing his...
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Black lung disease is affecting more coal miners in West Virginia. Here’s...
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration announced its plan to address a mining safety hazard their predecessors failed to meaningfully deal with: silica dust. The...
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New law could make it even harder to get health care in deadly West Virginia...
This article first appeared in Bolts and is reprinted with permission. Deborah Ujevich has forgotten Jenny’s last name, but remembers well how desperately she wanted to be free, how scared she was of...
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Health care workers worry state change to family planning program could limit...
For tens of thousands of West Virginians, the federal government’s family planning program pays for free and low-cost reproductive health care like contraceptives and tests for sexually transmitted...
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West Virginia health officials are writing a five-year plan to improve public...
West Virginia health officials have no shortage of problems to address. Among U.S. states, West Virginia has the highest cancer death rate, the highest fatal overdose rate and the second lowest life...
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West Virginia’s health department delayed a program change that could have...
Local clinics that provide tens of thousands of West Virginians with free and low-cost family planning services like birth control pills will get at least temporary relief from what their employees...
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Sober living homes in West Virginia face challenges, but state lawmakers are...
After several years struggling with fentanyl and heroin use, multiple felony charges and more overdoses than she can remember, Sylvia Mowery couldn’t envision her life without using drugs. But that...
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Officials say sweeping changes are needed to prevent institutionalization of...
Lawmakers will strongly consider increasing pay for workers who help West Virginians with intellectual disabilities live more independently, but a legislative study recommends a broader range of...
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Abuse. Overdoses. Mental illness. Health officials say they need a nearly...
West Virginia health officials say they urgently need nearly $300 million in new funding to help residents who desperately need drug treatment and recovery, protect the state’s children from abuse,...
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WV health officials pleaded for more money. Gov. Justice wants to give them...
Gov. Jim Justice has proposed granting a large chunk of the money his three health-related agencies said they needed to meet the urgent needs of West Virginians. In his budget, Justice recommended...
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A West Virginia community continues to fight against opioid distributors with...
As West Virginia struggles with an addiction crisis that still claims more than 1,500 lives a year, one of the state’s hardest hit communities is continuing its legal fight to hold painkiller...
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The federal government gave West Virginia $525,000 to prevent gun deaths. The...
Every year, gunshot wounds prevent hundreds of West Virginians from leading long, healthy lives. Around the same number of West Virginians die from gun wounds as from car crashes and fires combined....
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Federal judges ask West Virginia Supreme Court to weigh in on opioids case
A panel of federal judges wants West Virginia’s Supreme Court to weigh in on Huntington and Cabell County’s continuing fight to hold painkiller distributors accountable for the community’s addiction...
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One-third of West Virginians may soon have a harder time getting health care...
Across West Virginia, it’s already hard for many people to access health care. And unless state lawmakers change the budget they passed last month, it’s about to get even more difficult, especially...
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Federal mine safety regulators finally focus on silica dust – with thousands...
Federal regulators say they’ve finally crafted a rule that will protect coal and other miners from toxic silica dust, a growing problem in mines that has left thousands sick and dying. The Mine Safety...
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Years after a chemical contaminated Paden City’s water supply, residents are...
PADEN CITY — Robin Fox remembers the first sign that something was wrong with her husband Mark. “That was three years before we knew about the water,” she said. First, he began slurring his speech....
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