We enjoy any excuse for a party but when lesions and scabs are involved we can't help but be a bit repulsed. Chickenpox parties are growing in popularity as parents who don't want to vaccinate their kids try instead to get their children infected early in life when the effects are typically more mild. These parents may also be skeptical of the chickenpox vaccine for medical reasons or have religious reasons against vaccinating their children.......

Remember that amendatory veto Blagojevich put together a while back? The one that would have required insurance companies to cover up to $36,000 a year in occupational, physical, speech and behavioral therapies in addition to psychiatric and psychological services, and an unlimited number of doctor visits for autistic kids until they turn 21? That bill, known as House Bill 4255, died yesterday in the Illinois House, another victim of the feuding between legislators and the......

Illinois had more cases of measles than any other state this year, and according to the CDC, most of the people infected were unvaccinated children who are homeschooled. According to Cook County Public Health Department's Catherine Counard, not vaccinating a child affects more than just one person. "[Parents are] making a choice for the entire community. Because they're putting others at risk. And if their children become infected and expose a newborn infant who then......

A program at the Art Institute uses art to help nursing students strengthen their observational and visual perception skills. "The Discerning Eye: Visual Observation Skills from the Art Museum to Patient Diagnosis" is a 90-minute presentation meant to be incorporated into the patient-analysis section of the nurse residency program at the University of Chicago. The program aims to increase students’ awareness and ability to filter visual stimuli, while helping to challenge the perception that......

Governor Blagojevich used his amendatory veto power Sunday to expand House Bill 4255, which requires public employee health plans to cover preventative physical therapy treatments for multiple sclerosis and to expand autism coverage. The legislation comes from Senate Bill 1900, which did not pass earlier this year, despite broad bi-partisan support. Insurance policies in Illinois will now be required to cover up to $36,000 a year in occupational, physical, speech and behavioral therapies in addition......

A Cary woman was maybe bitten by a rabid bat, so McHenry County officials are warning people stay the eff away from the flying mammals. Bat bites can be so tiny they're almost impossible to detect, so people who've been around bats are often given rabies vaccines as a precaution. This is the 15th report of a rabid bat in Illinois so far this year; 113 were reported last year, but there hasn't been a......

Just in case your faith in humanity was in a healthy zone, consider the case of Jaylen Brown, a severely disabled 13-year-old who died last week from sepsis. His mother and two nurses have been charged with felony neglect, and a Trib story today outlines just how severe the kid's suffering was. When the boy with cerebral palsy, mental retardation and severe scoliosis was brought to a hospital March 17, he had ulcers on his......

Four people got new kidneys today from living-donor transplants at Northwestern in what doctors there call a "domino exchange," in which donors "agreed to give a kidney to a stranger in exchange for a compatible kidney from an unrelated donor for their sick relative." Like a big old organ web of sharing and caring. Living-donor kidneys are the best kinds of kidneys to get, and donors lead totally normal lives afterwards. April is National Donate......

Photo by Viqi French Mayor Daley unleashed a barely coherent rant today in favor of putting the Children's Museum in Grant Park. Even crazier than his ramblings? Most aldermen are backing him. [Trib, S-T] A tanker truck exploded in Lemont. [CBS 2] Just when we thought Todd Stroger couldn't surprise us... A lobbyist, who just received a $110,000 no-bid contract from the Toddler, is throwing him a fundraiser. [Crain's] Are perch making a comeback......

Photo by Only-Connect Today's long read, totally worth it: Violin prodigy Rachel Barton Pine's career was put on hold after a Metra accident severed her left leg and mangled her right in 1995. Now her career's getting back on track, but the road hasn't been easy. [Trib] The New York Times is Chicago-crazy today, with stories about the Butterfly Social Club's earthy, nonalcoholic vibes, and Jody Weis's proposed mandatory fitness tests for cops. And......

Photo by James at 42 Around 50 CPD officers currently on desk duty will be reassigned to street patrol near a handful of Chicago Public Schools. [S-T] A fire at a Leaks and Sons Funeral Home on 78th and Cottage Grove damaged the remains of five adults and two children. [Trib] Illinois is in the throes of a nasty flu season. [CBS 2] Ten things you might not know about the Chicago Park District.......

Photo by Joshua Mellin "'I don’t know why more banks don’t have security guards,' [bank robber] Renell Baker says." [AP] So...we guess you do have to be insane to like Blagojevich. [Cheap Shot Posse] Let's build a fort. [Hybrid Heart, via By So and So] Congressman Bobby Rush, D-Chicago, is recovering from surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on his salivary gland. [release] Dance pioneer Gus Giordano died Sunday. He was 84. [Trib] What......

Is Illinois heading towards legalized medical marijuana? State Senator John Cullerton (pretty website!) hopes so. He's sponsoring a bill that the Senate Public Health Committee approved 6-4 yesterday. A similar measure failed in the Senate last year, but try, try again. The Alternative Treatment for Serious Diseases Causing Chronic Pain and Debilitating Conditions bill would allow some patients to possess "no more than 8 plants and two and one-half ounces of usable marijuana." The bill......

Who doesn't love going to the eye doctor--so many cool tools and bright lights, and the "what's better, one or two?" thing is like a quiz you can't fail. Best! Thank jeebus we never went to the Myers-Wyse Center for the Eye in Skokie, though. Too bad for Roman Tesfaye. She did go there and got way more (less?) than an eye exam. Tesfaye alleges in a lawsuit that the an assistant at the practice......

Laughter, the best medicine. As in, your doctor is laughing at you and giving you fake medicine just to get you to shut up. The U of C surveyed internists from U of C, Northwestern and University of Illinois at Chicago, and of the 233 doctors who responded, 48 percent said they'd given patients placebos, including "vitamins, herbal supplements, saline infusions, dummy pills and doses of medicine too low to be effective. One of the......