Jennifer Fernandez/NC Health News

Whooping cough cases in North Carolina have risen sharply in 2024. There have been close to 600 reported cases — 6.4 times more than last year at this time. Nationally, cases are 4.8 times higher, federal data show.

“It is a problem that many policymakers have expressed concern over, and yet kids are still suffering,” said Corye Dunn, director of public policy for Disability Rights North Carolina.

Child care advocates have repeatedly sounded the alarm about how funding for child care centers will run out in July.

Accessing records has been difficult, hindering efforts, but child advocates hope lawmakers will craft legislation to ease the way for Guilford and any future review teams.

Several programs launched in North Carolina last year to help teens and young adults quit vaping or to stop them from starting.

Family members of victims are trying to educate people about the deadly drug and get the opioid reversal drug naloxone in more schools.

State health officials, alarmed by the growing number of cases, have launched a social media education campaign, a new website, and are working on other ways to reverse that trend.

In sextortion cases, a criminal threatens to expose or publish sexual content of the victim if the victim doesn’t provide more sexual imagery, meet in person for sex or pay the extortioner with money or gift cards.

More North Carolina babies are being born with syphilis, and state health officials are urging women to get tested before they give birth to help catch the sexually transmitted illness early.

As the United States marked Black Maternal Health Week this year, North Carolina advocates and health care professionals registered for a two-day, inaugural Black Maternal and Infant Health Conference. Their goal: Get to the source of the problem to help save the lives of Black mothers and their babies.