A Denver District judge is allowing a whistleblower lawsuit against the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to move forward in a ruling that cast doubt on testimony from the agency’s leader. In a ruling last week, Judge Shelley Gilman denied the state’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by a former high-level employee, […]
HIV
Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Colorado health chief says she “didn’t grasp” problem that led to huge HIV program cuts
Colorado’s top health official testified in Denver District Court this week that she failed to grasp the significance of a 2019 legal opinion that led to massive cuts in the state’s HIV prevention funding. Jill Hunsaker Ryan, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment, said she didn’t understand the implications […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s health department argues it can’t be sued in whistleblower lawsuit tied to botched HIV program
A former high-level state epidemiologist — who was fired last June amid the COVID-19 pandemic — is going to court this week for a hearing that will determine if his whistleblower lawsuit against state health officials can move forward. Tony Cappello, former director of Disease Control and Public Health Response at the Colorado Department of Public […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
As HIV infection rates rise in Colorado, pharmacies can now prescribe preventative pills
Colorado this month became one of the first states in the nation to let pharmacists prescribe HIV prevention drugs, part of a public health effort to curb rising infection rates nearly a decade after breakthroughs in medicine that can stop HIV’s spread. Starting this week, pharmacies can begin offering the daily preventative pill or an […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
Colorado researchers are racing to find an antiviral drug that could save people with the new coronavirus
Almost a week after the new coronavirus shut down the University of Colorado medical campus and booted Jed Lampe from his lab, he got the call he had been waiting for Thursday afternoon. Lampe and two of his fellow researchers received special permission from their department chair and the dean of the Skaggs School of […]
Posted inHealth, News
Colorado wants to let pharmacists write prescriptions for HIV prevention drugs
First it was birth-control pills, then smoking-cessation medications. Now, Colorado is on its way to becoming one of the first states in the country to allow people to skip the doctor’s office and get prescriptions for drugs that prevent HIV infection at the pharmacy. The move comes as more than 400 Coloradans are diagnosed with […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
HIV-prevention funding is being slashed in Colorado, even as a growing number of people are diagnosed
An alert went out to health agencies in late summer: the number of Coloradans diagnosed with HIV was on the rise, especially women. The state health department is now predicting 455 people will receive HIV diagnoses by the end of 2019, up from 409 last year. And this comes after more than a decade of […]