MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A mosquito-borne illness that a top Kansas State University researcher says can knock people down for weeks or months at a time has come to Kansas but usually isn’t fatal.

Stephen Higgs, director of the university’s Biosecurity Research Institute, is a world expert on the chikungunya virus. The Wichita Eagle reports the name is an African Makonde word that means “to bend up,” with intense joint and body pain.

About 100 people in the United States have contracted the illness, most while traveling. Kansas Department of Health and Environment officials say they include two people from Sedgwick County who recently traveled separately to the Caribbean.

The danger here will be if infected travelers come home, get bitten, and infect local mosquitoes that could then spread the illness widely.

HALSTEAD, Kan. (AP) — A developer who has owned the vacant Halstead Hospital and Hertzler Clinic for eight years says he’s still determined to find a use for it.

The 265,000-square-foot complex has sat nearly empty in the center of Halstead since it closed in 2002. Since he bought it 2006, Azzy Reckess has been working to find a tenant. Currently, only a call center employing 70 people uses the building.

Reckess, president of PAZ Health Care Management in Poughkeepsie, New York, says changes in state and federal health care system regulations hurt his efforts to find more tenants.

The Wichita Eagle reports that another obstacle is the $440,000 in back taxes Reckess owes.

Reckess recently brought in medical real estate redeveloper Cindy Ogden to find a way to reopen the building.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, Colo. (AP) — For the second day in a row, lightning has been blamed in the death of a visitor at Rocky Mountain National Park.

Park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson says officials were notified late Saturday afternoon of four people being struck by lightning near Trail Ridge Road. The four were rushed to a hospital, but 52-year-old Gregory Cardwell, of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, died of his injures.

On Friday afternoon, park officials said lightning killed one woman and injured seven other people. That also occurred near Trail Ridge, which is the nation’s highest continuously paved road.

Patterson says they are the park’s first lightning fatalities since 2000.

No other key details were released on Saturday’s strike, including the names of those hit.

A park news release identified the woman who died Friday as 42-year-old Rebecca R. Teilhet, of Yellow Springs, Ohio.

By Alex Smith, KCUR

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At the Kauffman Foundation Conference Center on Thursday, Eyvette Carter struggled to carry on a basic conversation with her husband, Warren.

She was distracted in no small part by Karl Chaney whispering in her ear.

“Don’t trust him. Is he looking at you? Why would he want to talk to you?” Chaney said.

The group was taking part in an auditory hallucination simulation, designed to demonstrate the experience of a psychotic episode.

Kansas City’s first-ever Mental Health First Aid day offered teachers, social workers, faith leaders and others a day of free classes to learn about mental illness and substance abuse disorders.

“We want people to talk openly about their mental health. We hope that, by doing that, when folks are more comfortable talking about it and bringing it to the attention of their friends and families, that we can get people into treatment earlier,” said Mark Wiebe, public affairs director of Wyandot Inc., parent company of a group of organizations that includes a community mental health center.

All nine of the courses – which were held at six sites and attended by more than 250 people – were filled to capacity, according to the Metropolitan Council of Community Mental Health Centers, the event’s organizer.

The event included separate training on adult and youth mental health.

Larry Lee said his work as a math tutor and youth mentor motivated him to attend the sessions focusing on youth mental health issues.

“Sometimes you run across situations where (you think), I don’t know why this student’s not catching on. There’s got to be something more going on,” Lee said.

The event included classes on identifying symptoms of mental illness and coping with emergencies.

Wiebe thinks much of the interest in mental health training resulted from high-profile shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn.

“That, for better or worse, sparked a conversation about mental health nationally. It’s been on the radar, and it’s been sustained on the radar ever since then,” he said.

He noted, however, that the sessions were not intended as “violence prevention” measures. He said the vast majority of people with mental illness don’t commit acts of violence and are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators.

The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City funded sessions in Clay and Jackson counties in Missouri, as well as Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas. Additional funding for the Jackson County sessions came from the Jackson County Community Mental Health Fund

Wiebe said another mental health first-aid day is planned for later this year, although a date has not yet been set.

WICHITA- Three people were injured just after midnight in a Sedgwick County crash involving a 1930 Model A Ford.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Ford passenger car driven by Jonathan R. Crouse, 25, Wichita was northbound on Interstate 135 just south of 101st street. The driver didn’t realize how slowly a northbound 1930 Ford Model A driven by David A. Frazer, 20, Moundridge was traveling

Crouse swerved to miss the older vehicle but struck the Model A in the driver’s side rear. Crouse’s vehicle went off the roadway to the right and struck a light pole.

The Model A rolled and both occupants were ejected.

Crouse, Frazer and a passenger in the Model A Laura L. Arnold, 35, McPherson were transported to St. Francis Medical Center.

Crouse was properly restrained at the time of the accident. The Model A doesn’t have seat belts.

MARGERY A. BECK, Associated Press

MISSOURI VALLEY, Iowa (AP) — Those with an eye toward healthy living have probably noticed the words “aronia berry” in everything from juices and powdered supplements to baby food.

Midwesterners probably know it as chokeberry, the name European settlers centuries ago gave the berry they found tart, astringent and more pretty than palatable.

The native North American plant is in the midst of a transformation, prized for its exceptional health benefits and easy cultivation. The almost black-purple, pea-sized berry gets its more agreeable name from its genus, Aronia melanocarpa.

Now dubbed a “superfood,” research shows the berries packing more antioxidants than blueberries, acai and goji berries. Producers are also taking notice, with thousands of the shrubs being planted by farmers — mostly in Iowa, but also in other upper Midwest states — every year.

 

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Four new Kansas measles cases have been traced to a Wichita restaurant where one employee might have picked up the virus during a recent outbreak in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is urging anyone who ate at Sal’s Japanese Steakhouse on Kellogg Drive on various dates in June and July and developed symptoms to call their doctor.

A KDHE news release says three employees at the steakhouse and an unvaccinated infant who was exposed to the virus at the restaurant became infected.

Measles cases have been rare in the U.S. since indigenous measles were declared eliminated in the country in 2000.

KDHE says there has been a resurgence in cases this year, with 554 confirmed in 20 states through July 3

 

LAWRENCE- A Kansas semi driver was injured in an accident just after 10 a.m. on Saturday in Douglas County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2010 Kenworth semi-truck pulling a trailer and driven by Gabriel T. Bukovatz, 36, Waverly, was eastbound on Highway 40 eight miles west of Lawrence.

The truck avoided a bicycle rider causing the vehicle to leave the roadway, overturn and strike a tree.

Bukovatz was transported to Lawrence Memorial Hospital. The KHP reported he was properly restrained at the time of the accident.

 

The KHP did not mention the condition of the bicycle rider.