Tagged: public health

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is making another push to get people who worked on the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil disaster cleanup to enroll in a long-term health study.

Dr. Dale Sandler, chief of the agency's epidemiology branch, said Tuesday that more than 29,000 people have enrolled so far. But, she says, the goal is to get 35,000 to 40,000 people signed up before enrollment in the study ends Dec. 31.

The Advocate reports enrollment started March 2011.

A federal judge in New Orleans has signed off on a $37.5 million settlement involving companies that provided trailers to thousands left homeless from Gulf Coast hurricanes seven years ago. Some residents claim the trailers contained chemicals that made them sick.

State health officials say in the past week one more person has died from the West Nile virus in Louisiana and the number of infections has risen to 251 for the year with 36 new cases reported.

The death toll from the virus so far this year stands at 11.

Louisiana's health department says the state is seeing its highest number of West Nile cases in years.