The branches of an oak tree are stained with a green tint from pollen at park in Richardson, Texas, Thursday, March 21, 2024. (AP Photo / Tony Gutierrez)

Allergy season is here — and it’s earlier and stronger than expected. The level of misery people will face depends on where they live and what they’re allergic to, but there are things you can do to feel better.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs an executive order March 18, 2024, alongside 7-year-old Kioko Jenkins, who has sickle cell disease, at La Rabida Children’s Hospital in Chicago. The order creates an advisory council to investigate how Illinois’ Medicaid program can help cover costs of emerging gene therapies. (Dilpreet Raju / Capitol News Illinois)
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About 5,000 Illinoisans live with sickle cell disease, a gene defect most common in Black people that causes red blood cells to be misshapen and die off early, resulting in chronic fatigue and pain. 

The House Human Services Committee hears testimony Wednesday, March 13, 2024, about Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposal to limit the ability of insurance companies to deny claims or steer patients toward cheaper, and possibly less effective, treatments.  (Peter Hancock / Capitol News Illinois)

The changes, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker first unveiled in his State of the State address in February, would limit the ability of companies to deny claims or steer patients toward cheaper, and possibly less effective, treatments.

(WTTW News)
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A recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling is raising questions about IVF. In Illinois, the Reproductive Health Act protects the increasingly popular path to parenthood while establishing people’s right to make decisions about their own reproductive health.

This image provided by Perrigo Company shows boxes of Opill, the first over-the-counter birth control pill available later this month in the United States. (Perrigo Company via AP)

The drug’s approval came despite some concerns by FDA scientists about the company’s results, including whether women with certain medical conditions would understand that they shouldn’t take the drug.

FILE - Boxes of the drug mifepristone sit on a shelf at the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on March 16, 2022. (Allen G. Breed / AP Photo, File)

Walgreens will begin dispensing the medication within a week at some locations in several states, including Illinois.

Screenshots from a video show leaky pipes, piles of trash and generally filthy conditions in what a source identified as the embalming room of the Moran Queen-Boggs Funeral Home in Centralia. The source who provided the video requested anonymity due to safety concerns. The funeral home’s director, Hugh Moran, would not confirm its authenticity. (Photos provided)

Eight photographs and one video taken late last year purported to show the conditions of the funeral home depict piles of dirty sheets, a dead rodent rotting in a stairway and water running from pipes in the embalming room.

(Credit: “Fight for Black Lives”)

The new documentary “The Fight for Black Lives” chronicles the stories of Black mothers who faced racial inequities in the health care system. The film comes as Gov. J.B. Pritzker is proposing $4 million dollars in his new budget proposal aimed at addressing the issue. 

State Rep. Lakesia Collins, D-Chicago, speaks at an event announcing the planned opening of a birth center on the South Side of Chicago Monday. (Credit: Illinois.gov)

The nonprofit Chicago South Side Birth Center will mark the city’s second active midwife-led birth center, but the first for the South Side. Advocates say the Black-led center offers safe birthing alternatives in a medically underserved area of the city. 

 A UChicago Medicine nurse submits ballot in strike authorization vote held on Feb. 20 in Hyde Park. The union National Nurses United represents 2,800 nurses at UChicago Medicine. (WTTW News)

National Nurses United represents 2,800 nurses at UChicago Medicine. A strike authorization vote is part of standard procedure, where represented nurses give the union the authority to call a strike. 

File photo of an at-home COVID-19 test. (Annie Spratt / Unsplash)

Millions of people deal with COVID-19 symptoms long after their initial infections. Two new studies give a better look at the burden from this health problem that doctors say often goes under the radar.

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“Some people feel it’s a stigma, and I don’t want people to feel like it’s a stigma,” state Sen. Cristina Castro said. “There’s great treatment out there. We’re just trying to help lower the barrier to that treatment.”

Medical equipment. (WTTW News)

The Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults and Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors programs provide state-funded Medicaid-like benefits to individuals aged 42 and over who would otherwise be eligible for the federal low-income health care program if not for their immigration status. 

Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton speaks to reporters and advocates at a news conference announcing a new unified portal for child behavioral health programs on Jan. 29, 2024. (Capitol News Illinois)
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The Illinois Department of Human Services is partnering with Google to launch a new centralized portal for children’s mental health care, state officials announced Monday.

(Darko Stojanovic / Pixabay)

Even though the overall U.S. population is aging, “we’re seeing a movement of cancer diagnosis into younger folks, despite the fact that there are more people that are in the older populations,” said Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society.

(WTTW News)

The Illinois Department of Corrections has awarded a new contract to the controversial Wexford Health Sources, the same private health care provider that’s been handling medical care in the state’s prison system since 2011.