Baltimore MD health, COVID-19, drug use and other news- The Baltimore Banner
The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Health

    Anne Arundel County has been working to minimize trash and recycling pickup disruptions since the strike started.
    Anne Arundel County DPW contract workers strike for fair pay, safer conditions
    Employees of Ecology Services, a company that does garbage pickup in Anne Arundel County, went on strike earlier this month after contract negotiations fell through.
    The new health professions building at Towson University moves most of the College of Health Professions programs into one building for the first time in the university’s history.
    From high-tech simulations to rooftop gardens: Towson’s $192M health professions building by the numbers
    The new building at Towson University includes simulation labs that feel like walking into the wing of a hospital or a primary care office.
    In the last six years, nearly 6,000 people have died in Baltimore from opioid overdoses — the worst drug crisis ever seen in an American city.
    Baltimore’s opioid case could head to court next week. Here’s how we got here.
    On Monday, Baltimore will begin a much-anticipated trial against drug companies to assign blame for the city’s opioid overdose death crisis.
    The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
    Johns Hopkins violated Americans with Disabilities Act during pandemic, federal complaint says
    Johns Hopkins Health System violated the Americans with Disabilities Act during the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Justice Department said.
    Addiction treatment centers like the one coming to Baltimore use medications like buprenorphine, along with counseling and other services, to treat opioid use disorders.
    Baltimore will get an opioid treatment center for kids. Montgomery County will pay.
    Settlement money from opioid manufacturers will fund Maryland’s first inpatient addiction treatment center for kids.
    Mayor Brandon Scott at a press conference in Baltimore City Hall's rotunda on Aug. 29 laid out his plans for managing the money won from pharmaceutical companies as part of ongoing opioid litigation.
    Baltimore gets $80M from Walgreens in latest opioid win
    Pharmacy giant Walgreens will pay Baltimore $80 million to settle a lawsuit the city brought against it and other drug companies as part of an overdose epidemic that’s plagued the city for years, Mayor Brandon Scott’s office said Tuesday.
    7/12/22—Exterior of the Druid Sexual Health Clinic on W. North Ave.
    Baltimore faces an ‘STI emergency’
    Massive cuts to HIV funding means some Baltimore programs have reduced services aimed at ensuring low-income people get tested, treated and maintain their treatment.
    Mayor Brandon Scott at a press conference in Baltimore City Hall’s rotunda on Aug. 29 laid out his plans for managing the money won from pharmaceutical companies as part of ongoing opioid litigation.
    Baltimore gets $80M in latest win against opioid manufacturers
    Baltimore has won $322.5 million in settlement monies from opioid manufacturers and distributors, which the city plans to use to address the overdose rate.
    Protesters stand outside the W.R. Grace & Co. headquarters in Columbia on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. Residents are protesting the company’s plan to build a pilot plastics recycling plant close to their homes.
    Howard County residents band together to protest chemical company
    The advocacy group, Stop Grace Plastic Burning Project — made up of Columbia residents who live near the W.R. Grace headquarters — are holding a protest to stop the chemical company from building a pilot plastics recycling plant.
    Juul packages are seen on a shelf in New York City in 2022. The company will pay Baltimore at least $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit.
    Baltimore will get at least $7.5M in settlement with e-cigarette maker JUUL
    Baltimore City sued Juul Labs in 2020, accusing the company of deceptive marketing campaigns aimed at children and teens by offering flavored vaping pens without disclosing their high nicotine content.
    The C.P. Crane Power Plant in eastern Baltimore County before it was demolished.
    A power plant used to burn coal there. Now it’s set to become a new Baltimore County park.
    Baltimore County plans to spend $10 million in state open space money to turn 85 acres in the eastern part of the county into a new waterfront park. The site until recently was home to the Charles P. Crane Generating Station, a power plant that burned coal.
    A Maryland Department of Health spokesperson said there are three positive human cases of West Nile in Maryland, all in the Baltimore metro region.
    Baltimore County will spray for mosquitos after insects test positive for West Nile
    Multiple mosquitos in Baltimore County have been found to carry West Nile virus, so officials are conducting additional spraying.
    Emergent Bio Solutions was given federal approval to use its smallpox vaccine against mpox.
    Emergent gets go-ahead for mpox vaccine, but it won’t be made in Baltimore
    Gaithersburg-based Emergent BioSolutions got approval to make more smallpox vaccine for use against mpox, but it won’t be produced in Baltimore.
    Mandy Gordon of Cumberland pulls her wagon full of food she received from Western Maryland Food Bank.
    Rural Marylanders faced more food insecurity this summer
    Food insecurity in rural Maryland has been especially pronounced this summer, local advocates say. Low-income families are grappling with soaring grocery prices and unusually high temperatures that hit at the same time as federal reductions in food assistance programs.
    COVID-19 vaccines are advertised at pharmacies across the region, but they're in short supply.
    Should you get another COVID-19 booster? In Maryland, yes.
    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration just approved two new versions of the coronavirus vaccine.
    Christine Feldman, director of communications for the Anne Arundel County library system, shows how new vending machines, stocked with naloxone, work during a demonstration on March 11, 2024.
    Naloxone in Anne Arundel County vending machines is a ‘swimming success’
    The Anne Arundel County health department provides the drug overdose reversal drug naloxone at vending machines at eight locations.
    Water fountains in public school(Photo by Shan Wallace/The Baltimore Banner)
    Maryland found ‘forever chemicals’ in school water fountains. Now what?
    Maryland officials found the insidious chemicals in water at 34 schools.
    Maryland has the second highest number of cases of Listeria, a bacterial infection that can cause flu-like symptoms, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday.
    Boar’s Head plant linked to deadly outbreak broke food safety rules dozens of times, records show
    Inspections at the plant have been suspended and it will remain closed “until the establishment is able to demonstrate it can produce safe product,” U.S. Agriculture Department officials said in a statement Thursday. Boar’s Head officials halted production at the Jarratt, Virginia, plant in late July.
    Mayor Brandon Scott at a press conference in Baltimore City Hall's rotunda on Aug. 29 laid out his plans for managing the money won from pharmaceutical companies as part of ongoing opioid litigation.
    Flush with cash from opioid settlements, Scott reveals Baltimore’s overdose playbook
    Mayor Brandon Scott laid the groundwork for the city to begin spending money, with designs on slowing the death toll in a city where in recent years an average of three people have died from overdoses every day.
    This image, which was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in July 2024, shows a label for Boar’s Head liverwurst. The company recalled 7 million pounds of deli meats on July 30, 2024, expanding an initial recall on July 25 after a liverwurst sample collected in Maryland tested positive for listeria.
    Death toll is now 9 in listeria outbreak tied to Boar’s Head deli meat, CDC says
    The new food poisoning toll includes two deaths in South Carolina plus one each in Florida, New Mexico and Tennessee, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Three deaths were previously confirmed in people who lived in Illinois, New Jersey and Virginia.
    Load More Stories
    Oh no!

    Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes. If the problem persists, please contact customer service at 443-843-0043 or customercare@thebaltimorebanner.com.