Illinois health care providers are bracing for more patients after Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin paused abortions last week. Local organizations like Planned Parenthood of Illinois have said they anticipate an uptick in out-of-state patients and are preparing to meet the increased demand.

Before this year, U.S. health officials — following recommendations by infectious disease experts — recommended annual COVID-19 boosters for all Americans ages 6 months and older.

“I love giving back, and the thing is, us pharmacists, we’re the most accessible health care provider in the community,” pharmacist Freddy Gomez said.

This fall, free take-home meals at Malcolm X College, Kennedy-King College and Olive-Harvey College will be available for students and their family members.

DePaul, a Catholic school in Chicago, prohibits distribution of any kind of birth control on its campus. To get around that, a student group runs a covert contraceptive delivery network.

A recent medical paper investigated the genome of Maria Branyas Morera, a U.S.-born Spanish woman who died in August 2024 at age 117 years and 168 days, shortly after becoming the world’s oldest living person.

Centro Sanar began five years ago as a grassroots initiative launched by local mental health providers. It focuses on helping people break through their complex traumas using different techniques.

President Donald Trump linked Tylenol use during pregnancy to rising autism rates in children. The president urged pregnant women to avoid the longtime household medicine and warned against giving it to infants.

While Planned Parenthood of Illinois is also affected by Medicaid reimbursement cuts, President and CEO Adrienne White-Faines said the organization is not planning to make any changes to services in Illinois.

Vending machines containing free Narcan will be placed at five CTA stations throughout Chicago as part of a six-month pilot initiative between the CTA and Cook County Health.

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when germs such as bacteria and fungi gain the power to fight off the drugs designed to kill them. The misuse of antibiotics was a big reason for the rise — unfinished or unnecessary prescriptions that didn’t kill the germs made them stronger.

Dr. Richard Frye told The Associated Press that he’d been talking with federal regulators about developing his own customized version of the drug for children with autism, assuming more research would be required.

The recommendation bucks new and murky guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that recommend vaccines only for people ages 65 and older.

The Out of the Darkness Chicagoland Walk, hosted by the Illinois Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, will be held Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Montrose Harbor.

From flexible electronic monitors the size of a Band-Aid to tiny pacemakers that dissolve harmlessly in the body when no longer needed — the work of the Querrey Simpson Institute of Bioelectronics at Northwestern University at times seems truly miraculous.

The rambling announcement, which appeared to rely on existing studies rather than significant new research, comes as the Make America Healthy Again movement has been pushing for answers on the causes of autism.