The Louisiana Department of Health and biotechnology company Phenomune have launched a statewide initiative that will provide up to 250,000 Louisiana residents with free at-home test kits designed to offer personalized insights into their immune health.

The program, announced Thursday, allows participants to complete a brief taste-based test using four strips placed on the tongue and submit their responses through the Phenomune app. Within minutes, users receive confidential information about how their bodies may respond to upper respiratory illnesses such as the flu, COVID-19 and bronchitis, helping inform conversations with healthcare providers.

State officials say the initiative is the first of its kind and aims to promote preventive healthcare by giving residents greater awareness of their immune profiles while generating population-level health data to support public health planning and resource allocation.

Gov. Jeff Landry called the effort a “bold step” toward strengthening healthcare access, particularly in rural communities, while reducing strain on the healthcare system through earlier intervention and more informed decision-making.

The program is based on peer-reviewed research linking certain taste receptors to respiratory health and immune responses. According to Phenomune, the test requires no lab work or biological samples and provides results in just minutes.

Healthcare providers, hospitals, nursing homes, community clinics and federally qualified health centers are also encouraged to participate by ordering kits for patients and integrating the program into care settings.

“At Phenomune, our focus is translating peer-reviewed science into practical tools that anyone can easily use,” said Dr. Henry P. Barham, founder of Phenomune, in a statement. “This helps people better understand their own immune system so they can take a more proactive approach to their health—and, over time, build healthier communities.”

The initiative is open to Louisiana residents ages 13 and older, with parental guidance required for minors. Test kits can be requested online through Phenomune’s testing program.

Phillip May, president and CEO of Entergy Louisiana, speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for Smalling Substation near Rayville, La., Friday, Jun 27, 2025. The substation will serve the Meta Richland Parish Data Center, which is now under construction.

This story was published in partnership with The Intercept, a newsroom committed to rigorous, adversarial journalism in the public interest.

Less than two weeks ago, in a scathing rebuke, a federal judge ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release a Louisiana grandfather who’d suffered a heart attack while in ICE custody.

The man, Akram Mahmoud Omar, 77, lived in the U.S. for 50 years until ICE abruptly seized him during a routine check-in last October and soon sent him to “Camp 57,” the ICE detention camp within the notorious state prison in Angola, Louisiana. 

The stress of the poor conditions there contributed to Omar’s heart attack, according to the habeas petition he filed in April. On May 29, a federal judge found ICE had violated Omar’s constitutional rights and ordered his immediate release. 

Then on Monday, just 10 days after his release, ICE seized Omar again and tried to whisk the still-recovering man onto a deportation flight the next morning, according to his lawyer Ken Mayeaux. 

Following an emergency motion from Mayeaux, the same judge again ordered ICE to release Omar and cautioned the agency not to make another deportation attempt.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (‘ICE’) shall IMMEDIATELY RELEASE Omar from ICE custody,” said the Monday order from Judge Brian Jackson in Louisiana’s Middle District. “ICE shall not RE-DETAIN or REMOVE Omar from the United States during the pendency of Omar’s Emergency Motion to Enforce the Court’s May 29 Order.”

In the May order, the judge found that ICE had violated Omar’s constitutional rights by unlawfully detaining him and denying him the chance to prepare for an orderly departure.

ICE directly defied that order by seizing him without warning for immediate deportation, the emergency motion alleges, blocking him from arranging his affairs or even saying goodbye, the emergency motion for Omar’s release said.

“Petitioner’s re-detention and planned removal are in direct contempt of this Court’s prior order,” reads the June 8 emergency motion. The government “lied to Mr. Omar, telling him and his family that he did not need to report to ICE/ERO” — ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division — “until December, but now, Respondent is racing to remove petitioner within hours.”

In a statement to The Lens and The Intercept, ICE spokesperson Angela Vicknair said, “ICE complies with all court orders, and any allegation that a judge’s orders were not followed are categorically false.”