Hepatitis is one of those silent illnesses we talk about often in public health. It’s estimated to be the seventh leading cause of death in the world, and yet it is one of those infections that many people living with it are not even aware they have.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  report hepatitis is an infection caused by one of five viruses – hepatitis A, B, C, D or E. Every form of hepatitis can cause inflammation of the liver, but hepatitis B and C often leads to cirrhosis and liver cancer.

That’s why World Hepatitis Day was recognized July 28, by the World Health Organization to raise awareness and promote understanding of hepatitis.

Not all hepatitis is...

After testimony from officials from three nonprofits that provided behavioral health services that were targeted with fraud allegations but later cleared by the attorney general, a second New Mexico lawmaker called for state Human Services Department Secretary Brent Earnest to resign.

“This is just morally repugnant behavior that this administration, this department, has done,” state Rep. Christine Trujillo, D-Albuquerque, said [July 27] at an interim Legislative Health and Human Services Committee meeting. “It’s criminal and obscene.”

Trujillo and eight other state lawmakers listened to the heads of three of the 15 behavioral health organizations that were infamously...

WASHINGTON – On July 15, a provision supported by U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and U.S. Representative Ben Ray Luján to secure funding for the Four Corners Regional Airport in Farmington was signed into law as a part of the bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration.

Udall pushed for the provision in the Senate bill, which Heinrich supported, to ensure that Four Corners will be eligible for full Airport Improvement Program funding in fiscal year 2017. After the Senate passed its FAA reauthorization legislation in April, Luján pushed for the provision’s inclusion in any final legislation considered by the U.S. House of Representatives.

AIP is a critical...

Staff Reports

New Mexico State Police Sgt. Chad Pierce released the name of the suspect killed by at least one Gallup Police Officer, shortly before 1 am July 24.

Pierce stated in a news release, issued July 25, that when police arrived at the 300 block of Arnold Street, Alvin Sylversmythe, 29, of Gallup was wielding two knives. Sylversmythe was on the west side of Arnold Street, in the alley when officers confronted him.

"Subsequently, shots were fired by the officers and the suspect was stuck," Pierce noted. "The suspect was immediately treated by EMS and transported to Gallup Indian Medical Center where he was pronounced deceased."

The sequence of events leading up to the officers...