Health

A rapidly spreading fungal disease affecting bats has been discovered in Daniel Boone National Forest.

The U.S. Forest Service says white-nose syndrome was found on hibernating bats in six caves inside the forest. Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources confirmed laboratory findings.

Some 5.7 million to 6.7 million bats have died since the disease was first detected in New York in 2006. It has since spread across the eastern U.S. as far west as Missouri and into Canada.

Forest Biologist Sandra Kilpatrick says 38 bat hibernation caves were surveyed over the winter, with white-nose syndrome found in six. Those six caves are in Jackson, Rockcastle and Pulaski counties.

No human illnesses have been attributed to white-nose syndrome, although people are able to spread the fungus.

A leading health organization in Kentucky is putting the pressure on Gov. Steve Beshear to expand Medicaid services under the Affordable Care Act.

Kentucky Voices for Health Executive Director Regan Hunt says her group is launching a two-week radio ad campaign pressure Beshear to expand Medicaid. The radio ad campaign will be partnered with a month long online ad campaign.

So far, the governor has delayed making a decision— although he seems to support the ideal, if fiscally possible.

Under the healthcare law, the federal government will pay 100 percent of expansion costs for three years and then 90 percent after that.

A federal HIV vaccine trial that Vanderbilt University  is being halted because of poor results. The nation’s most advanced clinical trial was stopped this week when an independent review discovered that more people who got a vaccine tested positive for HIV than those who received a placebo.

The trial involved 19 cities and had enrolled individuals marketed to people considered at high risk for contracting the virus.