Health

A statewide advocacy group is launching a new program to raise awareness of pool safety. The campaign by "Safe Kids North Carolina" aims to improve safety at pools and encourage simple steps that can save lives. Director Kelly Ransdell says about 400 kids under the age of 14 drown in pools and spas each year in the United States.

  More young adults are developing high blood pressure - that's the finding of research from UNC Chapel Hill. 

Since 1995, researchers around the country have been interviewing groups of adolescents and then following them and their health as they grow into adulthood. The study - calledAdd Health - is lead by demographer Kathleen Mullen Harris, from UNC.  Harris says they found about one-in-five people in their twenties and early thirties had high blood pressure. And that's worrisome. 

State health officials have approved reinstating of the bachelor's program in nursing at Fayetteville State University. Chancellor James Anderson suspended the program two years ago due to low test scores and conflicts among nursing instructors. Nursing Department Chair Afua Arhin says there are now safeguards to prevent those issues.

The government continues to roll out new details from the 2010 Census.  Figures released yesterday show North Carolina residents are getting older.

The median age of North Carolinians is 37-point-4 years. Ten years ago – the median age was 35. Bob Coats is the liaison between the Governor’s Office and the Census Bureau.  He explains one of several possible reasons for the age increase.

UNC Health Care board members say they're not interested in selling Rex Hospital to WakeMed.

Last week, officials at WakeMed sent a letter to U-N-C President Tom Ross offering to buy Rex Hospital for 750 million dollars. That's about three times what UNC paid to buy Rex 11 years ago. Yesterday afternoon, board members for UNC Health Care sent Ross a resolution saying a committee will study the financial implications of selling the Raleigh hospital. But the resolution says Rex is an integral part of UNC's teaching and business infrastructure.