Health & Science

View NPR's maps and graphics to see where COVID-19 is hitting hardest in the U.S., which state outbreaks are growing and which are leveling off.

Doddridge County was the last in West Virginia to report a confirmed case of the coronavirus. A surge in cases earlier in October has upended the lives of the roughly 8,400 residents living here.

With just a little more than a week before Election Day and with a challenge to the health care law coming before the high court, health care is on both the ballot and the docket. And for the Ohio Valley — a region with some of the nation’s worst health outcomes — the stakes are high.

Purdue Pharma, the company that makes OxyContin, the powerful prescription painkiller that experts say helped touch off an opioid epidemic, will plead guilty to three federal criminal charges as part of a settlement of more than $8 billion, Justice Department officials announced Wednesday.

Researchers at West Virginia University have received a nearly $2 million federal grant to develop a vaccine for the tick borne illness Lyme disease. The infusion of research dollars comes as cases of the bacterial infection, spread through the bite of an infected tick, are on the rise nationwide and in West Virginia.

Two farmers from north central West Virginia are vying for the position that guides and promotes the state’s agriculture industry. The Republican incumbent and the Democratic challenger both say they’re passionate about communication, which experts say is key, given the makeup and conditions of the industry in the Mountain State.

Officials at the state-run Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital are testing staff after roughly 60 people living and working there recently tested positive for the coronavirus.

New confirmed coronavirus cases and hospitalizations hit new highs in West Virginia over the past week as outbreaks grew in some of the most rural pockets of the state. Also, Gov. Jim Justice has announced the state has submitted its COVID-19 vaccine plan to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for review and approval.

Scientists say health effects are possible, though not imminent.

Overdose deaths are significantly rising in many states including West Virginia, but some are now adopting new laws that require those with opioid addictions to receive a reversal agent like Narcan alongside their pain medication prescription. This tactic would serve as a way to help save lives, should a patient overdose.