Sarah Fentem
Sarah Fentem reports on sickness and health as part of St. Louis Public Radio’s news team. She previously spent five years reporting for different NPR stations in Indiana, immersing herself deep, deep into an insurance policy beat from which she may never fully recover. A longitme NPR listener, she grew up hearing WQUB in Quincy, Illinois, which is now owned by STLPR. She lives in the Kingshighway Hills neighborhood, and in her spare time likes to watch old sitcoms, meticulously clean and organize her home and go on outdoor adventures with her fiancé Elliot. She has a cat, Lil Rock, and a dog, Ginger.
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State health officials said the pediatric patient tested positive for measles and that the case was a "associated with international travel." -
Avian flu has been found in 13 of Missouri's commercial poultry producers and egg farm flocks in the last month. Close to 400,000 birds in commercial flocks have been affected in the state. -
A Kansas City judge on Friday ruled that licensing requirements that were keeping clinics from providing abortions were discriminatory. Planned Parenthood Great Rivers this week will begin offering its first abortion appointments in years. -
Margot Riphagen has been Planned Parenthood Great Rivers’ vice president of external affairs since April of last year. She was a leader in the coalition of abortion rights supporters that led to Amendment 3 passing in Missouri. -
Advocates for abortion rights cheered when voters approved Amendment 3, which enshrined the right to an abortion in the Missouri Constitution. But nearly two months after the ballot initiative passed, the procedure still isn’t available in the state. -
Religious leaders had challenged the state’s near-total ban on the grounds it contained explicitly religious language. -
The four cases are included in an E. coli outbreak that has sickened more than 70 people around the country. -
The health care nonprofit also will shutter a location in southwest Missouri. Officials at the organization say the changes better reflect what current patients want. -
A routine flu screening in late summer found the H5N1 virus in a Missouri patient. Unlike the other reported cases, this person did not report being in recent contact with animals. -
Federal regulators have filed an administrative complaint against the St. Louis-based pharmacy benefit manager. Patients and pharmacists say the suit could lead to a change in business practices and more affordable drugs.
