St. Louis County Department of Public Health

In a press conference Thursday, Health Director Kanika Cunningham said “the underlying science behind the safety of these vaccines has not changed.”

Health officials are concerned about a spike in local overdose deaths due to carfentanil, a lab-made drug similar to the opioid fentanyl.

The St. Louis County animal shelter will host its first waived adoption fee event in an effort to reduce the number of pets at the shelter, which has been criticized for its overcrowding.

The council voted 6 to 1 to express no confidence in Kanika Cunningham’s leadership of the county animal shelter.

A report from the council’s ethics committee accuses Dr. Kanika Cunningham of mismanaging the shelter and recommends that a vote of no confidence be held.

St. Louis County is asking residents to donate diapers, formula and wipes at its three health clinics and at county libraries to help residents affected by the federal benefits freeze.

St. Louis County Executive Sam Page used the event marking National Gun Violence Awareness Month to push the county council to invest in a regional violence reduction effort.

This week, HRSA granted the county’s three clinics status as federally qualified health center lookalikes, which means the county can be reimbursed for providing care to uninsured patients.

Lab workers in Jefferson City sequenced the genome of E. coli samples from the St. Louis County-based outbreak and found they matched those in Indiana, Kansas, South Dakota and other states.

Baer Pediatrics, which has a policy of ordering tests for all patients who have persistent coughing, has reported nine out of 10 of the county’s logged whooping cough cases in the past two months.