Fox 29
the Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the manner of death accidental and the cause of death to be a sharp injury to the abdomen.
By Kelly Rule
Patch
The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Ortega’s death an accident with the cause being sharp injury to the abdomen.
https://patch.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/boy-4-dies-after-being-impaled-glass-philadelphia-police
By Max Bennett
CBS3
Sources tell Eyewitness News the medical examiner has ruled Adrian Ortega’s death an accident.
And the City of Philadelphia Department of Public Health recently launched a new sexual health marketing campaign to promote the HIV prevention pill called “Philly, Keep On Loving.”
“With an HIV rate four times the national rate, increasing the use of PrEP is necessary to end the HIV epidemic in Philadelphia,” stated Dr. Kathleen Brady, medical director and medical epidemiologist for the Department’s AIDS Activities Coordinating Office (AACO) in a news release.
By Ayana Jones
Then, a surprise: In the last quarter of last year, the number treated for overdoses by EMS dropped about 50 percent from the previous quarter. That drop reflects the widespread availability of Narcan, speculates Philadelphia Health Department spokesperson Jim Garrow. Calls to 911 are falling, he tells me, because so many people are carrying and administering Narcan.
By Stu Bykofski
But Tom Farley, Philadelphia’s public health commissioner, isn’t impressed.
“We’re glad that the administration is talking about eliminating HIV infection,” Farley said. “That’s certainly important. Our question is, really, what’s new about this plan? And that’s not clear.”
By Dana Bate
Students are calling out in bunches due to the norovirus that is spreading across the area. It is now forcing some schools in our area to cancel classes and doctors are warning residents to be on alert.
By Randy Gyllenhaal
Health experts say HIV is no longer a death sentence but it is a crisis in Philadelphia. Now they’re calling on people to act to help end the epidemic.
By Stephania Jimenez
Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr.Thomas Farley joins Charles to discuss the 2018 Health of the City Report.
By Charles Ellison
Metro
The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s office confirmed Tuesday that Fomalont’s death “was caused by hypertensive cardiovascular disease with a contributing factor of environmental hypothermia,” a Health Department spokesman confirmed. “This death was ruled accidental.”
https://www.metro.us/news/local-news/philadelphia/man-cerebral-palsy-dies-polar-vortex
Patch
According to the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s office, Gerald Fomalont died of environmental hypothermia after being exposed to the harsh winter temperatures.
The hypothermia was exacerbated by hypertensive cardiovascular disease, officials said.
Kendra Viner, the public health department’s opioid surveillance program manager, said the city has been planning an overdose fatality review for the past year, but it’s been delayed by legal challenges.
By Grace Shallow
Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley told the Post that tackling overprescription is one of the city’s three prongs in confronting the opioid crisis.
In addition to developing policies that would prevent doctors from overprescribing pain medication, he said, the city’s Department of Public Health is also trying to reduce the bureaucratic hurdles that confront opioid users seeking treatment. That sticking point has become increasingly pressing with the rise of fentanyl, the short half-life of which means the window for intervention is far narrower than that of traditional opioids like heroin.
The department also hopes to make naloxone – the opioid overdose antidote – more widely available to the public, and is convening open training sessions across the city to educate members of the public on how to recognise and treat opioid overdoses.
Farley said he was not familiar with the Trump administration’s efforts to stem the production of fentanyl at its Chinese source. His department “would love to be able to reduce the supply to the streets of Philadelphia”, he said, with an important caveat: “I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.”
By Owen Churchill
The Collected Works of Jim Garrow 