Najifa Farhat
Health Reporter, KBIANajifa Farhat is an award-winning investigative reporter covering health for KBIA’s Health and Wealth Desk. Her reporting focuses on the intersection of health and broader issues of well-being, including environmental and climate impacts, food security, marginalized communities, and emerging solutions and technologies. She approaches her work with the belief that every story has a health component.
Farhat holds a master’s degree in environmental journalism from the University of Montana and has reported extensively across the Mountain West, Southwest Michigan and now, Missouri.
She can be reached at najifa.farhat@missouri.edu
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Researchers examined 202 monitoring locations across Missouri and found potentially unsafe levels of fecal indicator bacteria at 171 locations, or 85% of the sites, on at least one day of testing. -
A recent analysis by ValuePenguin found the estimated number of pickleball-related injuries treated in U.S. emergency rooms nearly quadrupled between 2018 and 2025, with falls, slips and trips accounting for nearly 65,000 ER visits nationwide. -
Before the southeast Missouri smelter shut down in 2024, air monitors showed the surrounding area exceeded federal sulfur dioxide standards. -
The legislature-mandated report reviewed pregnancy-related deaths between 2019 and 2023. During that period, 340 Missouri women died while pregnant or within one year after the end of a pregnancy. -
About half of all Missouri enrollees chose bronze plans in 2026 — the lowest-premium option with the highest deductibles — a significant shift from last year. One reason for the shift is the lapse of Biden-era subsidies that made costs lower for buyers. -
Experts say the current enrollment numbers may still fall in the coming weeks. Many Affordable Care Act enrollees were automatically re-enrolled and remain in a grace period to pay their premiums.
