Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Ga.'s Grim Statistics On Maternal Deaths; Racial Disparity Marks Milwaukee's Infant Mortality Rates
Regardless of whether Georgia has the highest rate of maternal death in the nation, or whether it is merely one of the riskiest places to give birth, the prospects for new mothers remain dimmer here than in most places. In 2006, The National Women鈥檚 Law Center (NWLC) ranked Georgia 49th. (6/14)
African-American babies are dying in Milwaukee at a rate that is more than three times that of white babies, according to data released Tuesday by the Milwaukee Health Department. Approaching historic levels, it is the worst racial disparity in infant deaths that the city has seen in more than a decade. And while the average infant mortality rate for both black and white babies decreased during the three-year period ending in 2015, it now appears all but impossible that the city will reach the goal it set in 2011 of reducing the black infant mortality rate 15% by 2017. (Stephenson, 6/14)
Cincinnati's public library Tuesday stood by its previous decision not to cover an employee's transgender transition surgery, citing costs. Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County Library employee Rachel Dovel, who legally changed her name from Nathan last year, brought the issue to light earlier this year after her insurance declined to cover gender confirmation surgery. The board initially declined to change their policy, (Coolidge, 6/14)
St. Louis agencies that serve people living with HIV have seen a sharp rise in requests for emergency housing. More than 5,900 people were living with HIV in the city of St. Louis and six nearby Missouri counties at the end of 2015, according to the St. Louis Regional HIV Health Services Planning Council. (Bouscaren, 6/14)
Kellogg Co. joined competitors on Tuesday in recalling a variety of cookies and brownies because of fears of peanut-residue contamination with no warning on the label. The company stressed it was a voluntary and precautionary recall for products associated with a flour mill in Georgia. (6/14)
Settling a major lawsuit from environmentalists, San Jose city officials on Tuesday agreed to spend more than $100 million over the next decade and beyond to reduce tons of trash that flows into creeks and San Francisco Bay, repair miles of leaking underground sewage pipes and clean stormwater contaminated with harmful bacteria. (Rogers, 6/15)
