The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday afternoon that an undocumented teenager living in a Texas federal detention center must immediately be allowed to terminate her pregnancy. The court’s decision reverses a decision made last week by a three-judge panel that blocked her from getting an abortion…
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of Austin temporarily blocked a new state of Texas law Thursday that would’ve banned the most commonly used procedure for second-trimester abortions. Yeakel ruled that without the temporary restraining order, women in Texas could be denied access to the safest abortion procedure available to them…
Dallas County Health and Human Services officials announced late Friday that the county has had its first death from West Nile virus in 2017. The deceased patient, unidentified because of health privacy laws, became the county’s first diagnosed case of West Nile in 2017 on July 14. According to the county,…
Senate Bill 8, the anti-abortion law sent to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk by the Texas Legislature late Friday afternoon, is a bunch of things rolled into one. It’s a ban on fetal tissue donation. It requires all tissue obtained during an abortion to be buried or cremated, and it…
After warning two weeks ago that Dallas was on the edge of mosquito season, Dallas County Health and Human Services confirmed Thursday afternoon that it’s found West Nile virus, a sometimes-fatal mosquito-borne pathogen. Three mosquito traps in Balch Springs and Mesquite tested positive for the West Nile virus this week…
An 8-year-old in Dallas County died recently from complications from the flu, Dallas County Health and Human Services reported Thursday, the first Dallas County child to die from the flu during the 2016-2017 season. Officials are not releasing the child’s identity due to confidentiality and privacy laws. DCHHS Director Zach Thompson…
The 2016 mosquito season did not bode well for the human side of the fight. The number of trapped mosquitoes that tested positive for the West Nile virus broke records and the birth defect-causing Zika virus emerged in Dallas County. With this in mind, Dallas County Health and Human Services is…
Dallas County’s worst mumps outbreak in years has picked up steam this week, as an additional 11 cases have been reported by Dallas County Health and Human Services, bringing the county’s 2017 total to 56. Of those 56 infections of the highly contagious virus, 42 have been reported at Cedar…
Saturday morning, North Texas finally got in on 2017’s angry congressional town hall action. Congressman Michael Burgess, who represents parts of Far North Dallas and bigger chunks of Collin and Denton counties, faced a vocal, often angry crowd in Marcus High School’s gymnasium in Flower Mound. Burgess, a Republican medical…
Until Wednesday, Dallas County’s 2016 and 2017 uptick in mumps activity was contained to cases that came in ones and twos. Despite North Texas seeing two and a half times more mumps cases in 2016 than the longstanding statewide average of about 20, Dallas County had yet to see an…
Dallas County Health and Human Services announced Thursday that three cases of mumps have been diagnosed at a Dallas County high school, bringing the county’s total number of diagnoses this year to seven. In each case, the county says, the person infected has contracted the virus locally. In light of…
Continuing a trend that began with 10 local cases last year, Dallas County Health and Human Services announced Thursday afternoon that Dallas County has been hit with its third case of mumps in 2017. Like each of the previous two cases this year, the mumps case announced Thursday was transmitted…
North Texas’ latest viral disease is as familiar as it is unwelcome: mumps. Yesterday, Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) confirmed the 10th case in the Dallas County. Even though mumps is highly contagious, each case reported so far has been related to travel. Health authorities are urging vigilance. “The increased…
Considering the source, a state government that has at stake a large part of both its reputation and budget on preventing and restricting access to abortion, there is very little in the state of Texas’ Department of State Health Services’ new “A Woman’s Right to Know” pamphlet that comes as…
It appears Texas has its first locally transmitted case of the Zika virus. Monday afternoon, state health officials announced that a woman living in Cameron County in the Rio Grande Valley tested positive for the birth-defect causing virus. Unlike earlier diagnoses, she had not traveled to an area that’s been…
Disease researchers in Atlanta today announced the results of a study that found that West Nile virus is more dangerous than previously believed, with a mortality rate more than triple what the Centers for Disease Control previously tallied. “For many people in the United States today, West Nile virus is…
Nina Pham’s time as poster child for Ebola is coming to an end, a little more than two years after contracting the Ebola virus while working as a nurse at Dallas’ Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Monday afternoon, Pham and Presbyterian’s parent company, Texas Health Resources, announced that they’d settled Pham’s lawsuit…
Eventually, according people who predict this sort of thing, Dallas County is going to get its very own homegrown case of the birth-defect causing Zika virus. A mosquito carrying the disease is going to bite someone here, and we’re going to have a, hopefully small, local outbreak. Dallas County Health…
Dallas County is suffering through an infectious disease outbreak that has nothing to do with mosquitoes. Dallas County Health and Human Services announced Thursday that 13 residents have suffered from brucellosis so far in 2016, way up from the 2 to 6 cases the county normally sees in a given…
When the city of Dallas gets its first local, mosquito-transmitted case of the Zika virus, Dallas County will likely begin aerial spraying of mosquito-killing insecticide. Thanks to a Wednesday vote, it will do so with the blessing of the Dallas City Council as well. Dallas County Health and Human Services…
“Most of our patients coming for elective work come in through here,” Dr. Hasan Hashmi says as he stands in a hospital waiting room that is completely empty. No patients seeking elective work are in sight nor are any staffers behind the receptionists’ desk to admit them. “The admission staff…
A Carrollton resident is the first person in Dallas County to die from the West Nile virus in 2016, Dallas County Health and Human Services confirmed Monday afternoon. The name and gender of the victim, who was more than 60 years old, will not be disclosed for “medical confidentiality and…
