Gwen Dilworth

1 month ago | mississippitoday.org | Gwen Dilworth

Erica Reed could feel herself tearing up as she walked into work at Jackson Medical Mall on a Monday in April. It was the first time she had seen the lights out at the now relocated Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center’s adult medicine clinic – a harbinger of changes to come at the former shopping mall turned medical center.

1 month ago | mississippitoday.org | Gwen Dilworth

A new pharmacy in Jackson will distribute medication to patients free of charge. The St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy – a “pharmacy of last resort” – provides free prescription services and wellness education to Mississippians who can not afford their medications. “We are here for individuals that have exhausted all available means to get their prescription medicine on their own,” said executive director Samuel Burke at the pharmacy’s dedication Wednesday.

1 month ago | mississippitoday.org | Gwen Dilworth

Mississippi’s kindergarten vaccination rates, once the highest in the nation, dipped last year as the number of approved religious vaccine exemptions rose. The state’s childhood vaccination rates remain high, but public health officials are bracing themselves for possible outbreaks of measles and pertussis among young children as cases of vaccine-preventable diseases have risen across the nation.

1 month ago | publichealthwatch.org | Gwen Dilworth

Jermany Gray worked up the nerve to ask his doctor about preventive medication for human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, at his last check-up before leaving Jackson to go to college. He knew that for someone like him – a young, Black, gay man living in Mississippi – the odds of acquiring HIV were alarmingly high.

1 month ago | mississippitoday.org | Gwen Dilworth

This story is part of “Uninsured in America,” a project led by Public Health Watch that focuses on life in America’s health coverage gap and the 10 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Jermany Gray worked up the nerve to ask his doctor about preventive medication for human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, at his last check-up before leaving Jackson to go to college.