As we bring 2025 to a close, Idaho Matters takes a look back at the year through the lens of public health.

Short winter days can trigger Seasonal Affective Disorder — especially in children — but resources from FYIdaho are available to help families cope.

Momentum is building toward deployment of respirators to protect wildland firefighters from a long list of toxins. But researchers argue that the workforce’s practical concerns would need to be addressed for implementation to be successful.

The Centers for Disease Control is changing its recommendations for when to give babies the hepatitis B vaccine and the World Health Organization has weighed in on GLP-1 weight loss drugs.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare reports there were seven abortions recorded in the state in 2025, so far. That number doesn’t include telehealth abortions, which a new report shows are steadily on the rise.

Norovirus is on the rise, there is an increase in AIDS in eastern Idaho and raw milk is making people sick in the Gem State.

31 infants across the United States have been hospitalized in connection with a botulism outbreak, including one suspected case in Idaho.

The Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act was introduced by Democratic California Senator Adam Schiff and Republican Utah Senator John Curtis. If passed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal officials would have one year to develop a plan to make “commercially available appropriate respiratory personal protective equipment for wildland firefighters and supporting staff in settings in which smoke exposure surpasses covered permissible exposure limits.”

Idaho’s Crisis and Suicide Hotline services have seen a sharp increase in calls in the last few years.

Whooping cough cases are on the rise across the United States and new data from the CDC indicates infections are higher now than at the same time last year.