Feature Channels: Public Health

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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), seven million people worldwide die as a consequence of air pollution every year.

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”There's a lot of merit in bringing medicines to people who can't reach them themselves, but it's sort of putting a bandaid on the situation and I realized that only through scientific discovery will we really make huge changes that impact large populations of people. So that's why I started doing research and global health, specifically dengue virus and Zika virus.” —Dr. Melanie McCauley

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“The only way to prevent measles reliably is to get vaccinated,” said Dr. Catharine Paules, an infectious diseases physician at Penn State Health.

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Alcohol policy experts and researchers have rated policies typically included in official campus alcohol policies on their likely effectiveness; in doing so, they have developed an evidence-based approach for colleges to use in analyzing and updating their campus alcohol policies. Their review found that fewer than half of the specific approaches to reduce problematic alcohol consumption are “most effective."

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Fitness apps could be prescribed by clinicians to help patients recovering from cancer increase their physical activity levels

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University of Manitoba tick expert Kateryn Rochon demonstrates and explains the proper way to remove a tick.

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A new study led by a University of Georgia researcher, in collaboration with epidemiologists from the Georgia Department of Public Health, has identified some common factors associated with farmer suicide that may help health providers develop strategies to reduce suicide risk.

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Researchers use an innovative method to quickly identify three- or four-drug combinations among billions of possible combinations of drugs and doses that work up to five times faster than the currently available standard treatment for TB.

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One year after Philadelphia passed its beverage tax, sales of sugary and artificially sweetened beverages dropped by 38 percent percent in chain food retailers, according to Penn Medicine researchers who conducted one of the largest studies examining the impacts of a beverage tax. The results, published this week in JAMA, translate to almost one billion fewer ounces of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages – about 83 million cans of soda – purchased in the Philadelphia area. The findings provide more evidence to suggest beverage taxes can help reduce consumption of sugary drinks, which are linked to the rise in obesity and its related non-communicable diseases, such as type II diabetes.

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Rumi Chunara, assistant professor of computer science and engineering and global public health at New York University, has won a Grand Challenges Explorations grant—an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Chunara will pursue an innovative global health and development research project focused on smart immunization targeting in Pakistan using artificial intelligence (AI) and mobile tools.

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Journalists and bloggers are invited to join top scientists and practitioners as they discuss new nutrition research findings during Nutrition 2019, the flagship meeting of the American Society for Nutrition.

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India in 2015 had more deaths among children under five than any other country and had large disparities in the under-five mortality rate between richer and poorer states, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Twenty-five counties across the country have been identified to be most at risk for a measles outbreak due to low-vaccination rates compounded by a high volume of international travel, according to an analysis by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Johns Hopkins University.

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Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have published new information that stresses the need for increased mental health care for current and former smokers, especially those who suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

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A new analysis co-led by The Johns Hopkins University identified 25 United States counties that are most likely to experience measles outbreaks in 2019. The analysis combined international air travel volume, non-medical exemptions from childhood vaccinations, population data and reported measles outbreak information.

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Chlamydia is the most prevalent bacterial STI in the world. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers, in partnership with colleagues at sites in the US, Europe and Australia, will receive up to $10.7 million over five years from the NIH to move closer to identifying a vaccine.

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Feeding mosquitoes sugar makes them less attracted to humans, a response that is regulated by the protein vitellogenin, according to a study

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A country’s progress towards measles elimination can be mapped on a “canonical path” that in turn can guide vaccination strategies, according to a study from scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that the spread of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE)—bacteria that have high levels of resistance to most antibiotics—could be reduced if only 25 percent of the largest health care facilities in a region used a patient registry, a database that can track which patients are carrying CRE.

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The deadly Nipah virus, which is carried by bats and occasionally infects people, is more likely to be transmitted from person to person when the infected patient is older, male and/or has breathing difficulties, according to a study co-led by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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The Integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia (iTHRIV), which aims to improve the health of people across the state and beyond, is seeking nonprofit or government organizations to partner with researchers to address community health needs and improve public health.

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New research, published in the research journal Obesity, has found that people on lower incomes may be more likely to have obesity due to psychological distress

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Highest honor recognizing outstanding contributions to science

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Australian doctors are prescribing antivirals for people with the flu who may not benefit, putting patients at risk of unnecessary side effects and potentially increasing the risk of antimicrobial resistance to these medications, researchers from the University of Adelaide have found.

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In a breakthrough that could lead to a simple and inexpensive test for Ebola virus disease, researchers have generated two antibodies to the deadly virus. The antibodies, which are inexpensive to produce, potentially could be used in a simple filter paper test to detect Ebola virus and the related Marburg virus.

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A new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health analyzed providers excluded from Medicare for fraud and abuse, and found that the patients they treated prior to being banned were more likely to be minorities, disabled and dually-enrolled in Medicaid to supplement financial assistance for health care.

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Diana Aga's research examines how sewage treatment systems help — or don’t help — to eliminate antimicrobial drugs and their remnants, called residues, from wastewater before it’s discharged into rivers and lakes.

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New research in Nature Communications reports that immediate, dramatic cuts in carbon emissions – aggressive enough to meet the Paris Climate Agreement – are economically sound if human health benefits are factored in.

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The University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Robert Fettiplace has been named a 2019 Passano Fellow for his research into the mechanics of hearing, his second prestigious international scientific prize in a year. Fettiplace, a professor of neuroscience at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health won the award for showing how cochlear hair cells sense the tiny mechanical vibrations that sound produces in the inner ear.

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HHS’s “Conscience Rights” Rule Threatens Public Health

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Millions of people are infected with hepatitis B every year. Hundreds of thousands die. And small children are particularly at risk.

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A study published this week that analyzed 15 years of mosquito surveillance data shows Iowa’s western counties experience a higher abundance of the species thought to most commonly carry West Nile virus. Culex tarsalis, the mosquito species most often implicated in West Nile transmission, usually becomes most active in early September. The data support similar findings in Nebraska and South Dakota.

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A diabetes drug is being enlisted in the war against smoking by UTHealth researchers.

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A day-long summit on opioid-related topics will focus on bringing findings from research and community-based efforts to those who can use them to make a difference in public policy and clinical practice.

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Children and older adults are considered to be at higher risk for contracting measles. In this advisory, Michael Ben-Aderet, MD, associate director of Hospital Epidemiology at Cedars-Sinai, shares what parents need to know about measles, including risk factors and tips for preventing it.

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University of Alabama at Birmingham infectious disease and primary care experts urge the public to know their vaccination status and educate themselves on the dangers of the measles, as continued outbreaks in more states are anticipated in the coming weeks. Today, the Tennessee Department of Health reported to the Alabama Department of Public Health that an individual with a confirmed measles case traveled through Alabama on April 11 and made two stops during the infectious period, raising the likelihood that measles could appear in the state.

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Research teams at the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, led by Associate Professor Scott Pegan, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control, led by Éric Bergeron, have successfully discovered a single-dose replicon particle vaccine that provides complete protection against the Crimean-Congo Hemorraghic Fever (CCHF) virus in mice.

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UF/IFAS scientists zeroed in on the Florida mosquitoes because most of the studies done on “vector competence” to date have been conducted on species in Africa and Asia.

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New Mexico State University researchers collaborating with the New Mexico Department of Health recently published a paper that shows there is widespread resistance to insecticides in one type of mosquito found in southern New Mexico

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Americans spend more time sitting. Total time spent sitting increased about an hour per day to 8.2 hours for adolescents and 6.4 hours for adults in 2007-2016 in this analysis of nationally representative survey data.