By: Nada Hassanein-Sept. 25, 2025 Louisiana Illuminator
A majority of children in the United States rely on Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program at some point by their 18th birthday, and many experience periods of coverage loss, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA.
Tulane University researchers have developed an enhanced CRISPR-based tuberculosis test that works with a simple tongue swab, a potential breakthrough that could allow easier, community-based screenings for the world’s deadliest infectious disease.
The American Heart Association announced that its multi-year effort to implement and fund cardiac emergency response plans (CERPs) in Louisiana schools and at school athletic events has been a success. This effort is part of the Association’s Nation of Lifesavers movement to double survival rates from cardiac arrest by 2030.
U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, MD, (R-LA), chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., asking him to support the pertussis, or whooping cough, vaccine.
Read the full letter below:
“Dear Secretary Kennedy:
The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) announced the launch of a stakeholder engagement initiative to inform the Department’s application to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program. The Department will utilize this program to provide transformative changes with long-lasting health benefits for rural Louisianans.
