Recent News

Baltimore's Northeast Market closes after video shows rats inside, days after same problem at Lexington Market (Baltimore Sun)

For the second time in less than a week, a viral video depicting vermin scampering about has led to the temporary closure of one of Baltimore’s public markets.

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Nicholas Kristof's NYT Newsletter - A Guest Post

Dr. Leana Wen fills in for Nicholas Kristof, guest authoring his New York Times newsletter and discussing the Trump administration's Conscience and Religious Freedom division in the Department of Health and Human Services.

"The ostensible aim is to protect the right of health care workers to opt out of procedures that they have religions objections to. The government issued regulations to expand that right so that all of the above scenarios could be justified based on the provider’s religious beliefs. There is now no requirement to inform the patient of why care is denied or to offer a referral to someone who can provide it."

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Leana Wen

Note From The Commissioner: Fighting for Health Equity

Last weekend, I had the honor to speak at the UnidosUS 2018 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. Formerly the National Council of La Raza, UnidosUS is the United States’ largest Latino nonprofit advocacy organization. Other speakers included heroes and partners in our work in health and justice: Bryan Stevenson (Founder and Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative); Cecilia Muñoz (Former Director, Domestic Policy Council, Obama White House); Chad Griffin (President, Human Rights Campaign); and Sherrilyn Ifill (President and Director-Council, NAACP Legal Defense Fund).

Leana Wen

Baltimore expands telehealth program for seniors (The Daily Record)

Baltimore has extended the Telehealth Intervention Program for Seniors program in the Park Heights community, hoping to reduce emergency room and hospital visits and emergency room visits.

The telehealth program remote monitors vital signs and social services for low-income adults over the age of 60.

Read the entire story.

Leana Wen

'It keeps us safe': An NYC bathroom set up to stem overdoses (AP)

— At an unassuming storefront on a busy Brooklyn street, people sign up to use a bathroom outfitted to try to curb an overdose crisis.

Waiting his turn, a man named Robert is frank about why he's there, instead of one of the stairwells, parks, rooftops or porches where he has used heroin in the past.

Read the entire story.

Leana Wenopioids

Mosquito Populations Increase Due to Wetter Spring (WJZ)

A wetter than normal spring produced a lot of mosquito larvae, which are now taking wing to feed on us.

The real health risks are diseases carried by mosquitoes. According to Baltimore City Health Commissioner Leana Wen, some of these include encephalitis that causes severe brain infections, dengue fever, West Nile that can cause many severe effects, including severe bleeding, and even liver, kidney and total body failure and death.

Read or watch the entire piece.

Leana Wen

Mayor Pugh and Health Commissioner Dr. Wen Announce Expansion of Telehealth Intervention Program for Older Adults

BALTIMORE, MD (July 12, 2018) — Today, Mayor Catherine E. Pugh and Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen announced the expansion of the Telehealth Intervention Program for Seniors (TIPS) in the city’s northwest Park Heights community. 

Support available to help people age well, and stay in their home longer (The Daily Record)

Staff in subacute care at the Keswick Multi-Care Center weren’t sure if an older woman was going to recover after she was sent to them from a local hospital.

Two years later, that same woman was able to move from long-term care into her own apartment. After another year, she is now a regular visiting Keswick Community Health programs every day, taking classes, making art and even participating in a walking club.

Read the entire story.

Leana Wen

City expands telemedicine program for older adults in Park Heights (Baltimore Sun)

Mayor Catherine E. Pugh and Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana S. Wen announced Thursday the expansion of the Telehealth Intervention Program for Seniors.

The program, which originated in New York, has operated out of the Zeta Center for Healthy and Active Aging since April and has 100 people enrolled.

Read the entire story.

Leana Wen

Baltimore Citywide Engagement of Emergency Departments to Combat the Opioid Epidemic (AJPH)

In their editorial, Dr. Wen and Dr. Shelly Choo focus on the collaboration between the Health Department and the City’s 12 emergency departments to fight the opioid crisis, and highlights specific programs created to facilitate opioid addiction interventions from the ED, including discharging patients with naloxone, connecting patients to peer recovery coaches, and providing access to Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) from the ED. 

Read the editorial

Leana Wenopioids

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