Health and Medicine

Illinois' new medical marijuana shops sold nearly $211,000 worth of cannabis in the first week, with less than a quarter of eligible patients buying so far.  

The state's first regulated marijuana dispensaries opened Monday. Program director Joseph Wright said Friday the dispensaries served 806 customers. They purchased about 460 ounces of marijuana, or about a half an ounce per person, on average.  

Green Thumb Industries CEO Ben Kovler says the numbers are "a very strong start." 

Governor Bruce Rauner has cut back on institutional care available to seniors.  The Republican used an amendatory veto Friday to reduce the cost of the measure aimed at protecting people who get institutional or at-home care while officials develop a new way of measuring need. Chicago Democratic Rep. Greg Harris sponsored the plan. He says it ensures people getting assistance now won't get cut off by a new assessment process.  

Medical marijuana growers in Illinois have been notified by state officials that they can start shipping their products to dispensaries today for sale to patients early next week. Department of Agriculture instructions say marijuana can be transported only between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. Vehicles carrying it must be staffed by at least two cultivation center employees. Growers must enter product ID numbers into a digital statewide tracking system. A Florida-based company called BioTrack THC has the Illinois contract for tracking medical marijuana from seed to sale.

Illinois wants insurance companies in the small group market to submit changes to their small business policies as quickly as possible following a bipartisan adjustment to the nation's health care law. President Barack Obama signed legislation last week that gives states flexibility about whether to change the definition of ``small business'' under the law.  

In an Oct. 9 memo to insurers, the Illinois Department of Insurance says it will keep defining ``small'' as employers with 1 to 50 employees.  

An advisory board has voted to add chronic pain syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, osteoarthritis and three other pain conditions to the list of illnesses that can be treated by marijuana in Illinois. The state's Medical Cannabis Advisory Board made the recommendations Wednesday at a meeting in suburban Chicago.

County health officials have confirmed that a Northern Illinois University student has mumps. University officials say they're working with the DeKalb County Health Department and the Illinois Department of Public Health to provide more community information. Illinois' outbreak has centered on the University of Illinois' Urbana-Champaign campus, where more than 100 cases have been confirmed. Two cases were confirmed last month at Eastern Illinois University.  Nearly 30 have popped up at various schools in Bloomington Normal.

An Iowa-based telepharmacy company is opening a location in the northern Illinois village of Mount Morris and is in talks with other communities. The privately owned TelePharm has an off-site pharmacist inspect and verify prescriptions, which on-site technicians dispense. Customers order in person or online and then pick up prescriptions. Customers also can speak with the off-site pharmacists. TelePharm representative Greg Janes says the company is talking with officials in Ashton in Lee county and Erie in Whiteside County.

Officials in Elgin say about 2,900 students were evacuated after higher-than-normal levels of Legionella bacteria were found in cooling towers at three schools. School District U-46 spokeswoman Mary Fergus says the levels were found during annual air quality testing of the schools' cooling towers. She says no students were ill. Students were dismissed home or taken to Bartlett High school or Elgin High School to be picked up by parents.