Health

Covid infections are on the rise again, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control, and doctors and medical professionals here are urging people to remember the lessons learned during the pandemic to keep themselves healthy. 

Fighting Chance of Sag Harbor, in collaboration with the American Cancer Society, has published an updated cancer resource guide that includes details about medical and wellness facilities and practitioners, emergency services “along with a sprinkling of information and practical advice to ease each patient along their journey,” according to a release from the organizations.

Hang tight, Montauk — yes, the White’s Drug and Department Store building has a new owner, but the potential loss of the hamlet’s only pharmacy is not a foregone conclusion. That’s because the building’s new owner is a doctor himself who said he understands why pharmacies are important.

With over 400 blood samples collected from Lyme-infected East Enders since 2014, Dr. George Dempsey of East Hampton Family Medicine is the largest contributor to the Bay Area Lyme Foundation Lyme Disease Biobank, and his samples have helped improve the test that can detect it. The new test could catch it even sooner.

What do Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy, Ikaria in Greece, Nicoya in Costa Rica, and Loma Linda in California have in common? They are considered by some health experts to be “blue zones” — places where people are living longer lives with fewer health troubles than in the rest of the world. Dr. David Luu thinks Sag Harbor Village is going to be on that list someday soon.

Flu season doesn’t start until after Thanksgiving, right? Wrong. Dr. George Dempsey, the medical director of East Hampton Family Medicine on Pantigo Road, wrote last week to say he’s already had a handful of patients test positive in the office. “Never before last year did we see so many this early,” said Dr. Nadia Persheff, a pediatrician in Southampton.

In recent weeks a deadly bacterium found in warm seawater and in raw seafood has killed at least three people in New York and Connecticut, including a Brookhaven Town resident, and sickened at least one resident of East Hampton Town.

With its new Regional Tick-Borne Disease Center in Hampton Bays officially opening on Monday, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital is hoping to stave off what seems to be a growing epidemic of tick-borne illnesses. 

The Southampton Hospital Foundation announced this week that it will break ground this month on the Stony Brook Medicine East Hampton Satellite Emergency Department next to the East Hampton Healthcare Center on Pantigo Place.

A month ago, the New York Blood Center announced its fifth blood emergency of 2022. “We need 30 to 32 thousand units per month, but we’re collecting between 28 and 31 thousand,” Andrea Cefarelli, the senior vice president of the blood center, said.

The good news that Erica-Lynn and Alex Huberty received was that Mr. Huberty’s cancer — B-cell follicular lymphoma — is not terminal. But wrapped in that was also some bad news on the financial front.

“Probably the most alarming . . . finding was the severity of the mental health needs and experiences of depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts among the L.G.B.T.Q.+ population,” Jennifer Mesiano Higham of Stony Brook University Hospital said of the results of a Stony Brook Medicine survey on the health care experiences and challenges of the L.G.B.T.Q.+ population on Long Island.