Health

A top health official at the University of Kansas Hospital said the severity of this year’s flu outbreak is requiring inpatient admissions at a rate more than three times that which it generally sees during flu season.

During the past eight years, the philanthropic community has spent about $8 million on a wide-ranging program aimed at improving health services for low-income individuals in the Kansas City area.

The REACH Healthcare Foundation and the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City (HCF) have provided nearly three quarters of the total funding. But now, the collaboration and the various efforts it has spawned are taking on a more targeted approach heading into 2015.

A business-led group based in Kansas City, Mo., is leading an effort to quadruple Missouri’s lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax and direct the proceeds to early childhood health and education programs. Organizers of the “Raise Your Hand for Kids” campaign on Friday outlined their plan for a statewide ballot initiative to an audience of about 100 business,…

Financial considerations might influence use of a newly approved vaccine targeted at a strain of bacterial meningitis that often strikes college campuses, according to speakers at an event Thursday in Kansas City, Mo., sponsored by the Mid America Immunization Coalition (MAIC). The drug in question is Pfizer’s Trumenba, which gained approval from the U.S. Food…