The Senate Health and Human Resources Committee advanced several bills regarding cancer prevention, school nutrition programs, foster care, and grant programs.
Senate Bill 662 would establish the Colorectal Cancer Screening and Diagnostic Colonoscopy and Treatment Pilot Program.
This program would be created within the Bureau of Public Health and would screen for and detect colorectal cancer among underserved populations.
The program includes, but isn’t limited to, the following:
- Establishment of protocols for follow-up colonoscopies, diagnostic colonoscopies, and colorectal cancer treatment for underserved individuals who meet eligibility criteria
- Provisions of grants to approved organizations
- Compilation of data concerning the colorectal cancer screening and diagnostic colonoscopies, colorectal cancer treatment, and dissemination of the data to the public and any related outcome information, if available.
- Colonoscopy services shall be provided by contracted colonoscopy sites under a Memorandum of Understanding.
The bill was reported to the full Senate with a recommendation of passage, first being sent to the committee on Finance.
House Bill 4626 would establish a state grant program supporting clinical drug development trials for ibogaine.
This bill would authorize the Secretary of Health to administer a public-private partnership program to fund efforts seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for ibogaine as a treatment for opioid use disorder and other qualifying conditions.
The bill was reported to the full Senate with a recommendation of passage, first being sent to the committee on Finance.
Senate Bill 745 relates to school nutrition programs and would require schools to post on their website the school’s breakfast and lunch menu, with the list of ingredients for each item on the menu.
Some of the food additives deemed as unsafe and would not be permitted as an ingredient in any meals served in a school nutrition program include:
- Titanium dioxide.
- Butylated hydroxytoluene
- Butylated hydroxyanisole
- Â Tert-butylhydroquinone
- Red Dye No. 3
- Red Dye No. 40
- Yellow Dye No. 5
The bill was reported to the full Senate with a recommendation of passage, first being sent to the committee on Finance.
Senate Bill 763 would require all children placed into foster care to be screened for human trafficking upon entry into the foster care system by the Department of Human Services.
The bill was reported to the full Senate with a recommendation of passage.
Senate Bill 773 would require the Secretary of the Department of Health to propose legislative rules to include alpha-gal syndrome on the list of diseases required to be reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Alpha-gal syndrome is a tick-borne condition that could cause allergic reactions to red meat and would become a reportable disease in West Virginia. This bill allows state health officials to track cases and share data with the CDC.
The bill was reported to the full Senate with a recommendation of passage.
