When you think it can’t get worse being sick in the Bluegrass State, something shows we underestimate how bad things can get.

This from the Kentucky Lantern:

The Kentucky Department for Public Health is investigating reports of an unusually high number of brain tumors diagnosed in Eastern Kentucky children. 

Beth Fisher, a spokeswoman with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, told the Lantern the state is “aware of reports concerning a potential increase in pediatric brain tumor cases.” 

It’s unclear how many cases are under investigation in that area. 

Several public social media posts indicate four to five recent cases of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) within a small area of Southeastern Kentucky. DIPG is a rare and incurable cancer mainly found in children around ages 6-7. Patients who have DIPG may have trouble walking, weakness or drooping in the face, blurred vision and other eye problems and other issues. Survival at two years is about 10%, according to DIPG.org, and 2% at five years. 

Kentucky has 44 total “participants” in the international DIPG registry, which represents both self-referrals and referrals from physicians. ZIP Code and county breakdown for those 44 was not available. 

And if that’s not enough, we have this (also from Kentucky Lantern):

Kentucky’s measles outbreak has increased by 10 new cases, according to state data. 

In total the state has now confirmed 29 cases of measles this year, the most seen since 1991, according to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Of those, 17 were confirmed in August, according to the state’s measles dashboard. 

An outbreak is defined as three or more related cases by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

In a Thursday morning press conference, Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said that vaccines are “safe, effective and save lives.”

“Please talk to your doctor, roll up your sleeves, get your kids vaccinated. Their lives aretoo important to risk,” Beshear said. 

During the press conference, Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Steven Stack said measles is incredibly contagious, telling people who are not vaccinated against measles but have been exposed to someone infected to call the doctor’s office or hospital first before arriving to seek care.

The measles map at the top shows most measles cases are in the southwest part of the state. Combine that with the brain cancers showing up in the east region and you have more proof that the Republican supermajority in Frankfort doesn’t give a damn about protecting our children.

The health situations are the result of environmental ignorance as well as just plain stupidity on the state and national scale. On the state level, we have a GOP supermajority in the legislature that consistently votes to keep our children sick and stupid. While this is happening, we have a Republican legislature, judiciary and executive branch that goes out of its way to make the environment more deadly (by undoing environmental protections), and well as having a brain-worm infested anti-vax heroin junkie running the federal Department of Health.