Feature Channels: Public Health

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Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) occurs on a spectrum of severity. The majority of people who drink excessively develop a fatty liver, which though often symptom free, can progress to a state of inflammation, fibrosis, and cell death that can be fatal. Little is known about liver disruption that may occur in problem drinkers who are not alcohol dependent. To help understand the development of ALD, this study used a rodent model to examine differences in liver damage between binge drinkers and heavy drinkers.

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Northwestern Medicine will host a symposium Jan. 25 to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the implementation of the National Institutes of Health’s landmark sex-inclusion policy. The NIH is revolutionizing the future of medicine by mandating that research funding is contingent upon the inclusion of female cells or animals in scientists’ studies.

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Laraine Glidden, distinguished professor of psychology emerita at St. Mary’s College, will be one of three participants in a webinar from the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities on the public health approach to the issue of maltreatment of children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities across the lifespan.

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In this month’s release, find new embargoed research about: impact of minimum wage on teen birth rates; trends in parental leave rates over 22-year period; and food insecurity and cardiovascular-related health outcomes among American Indians.

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For the first time, viruses have been found to communicate with one another, leaving short “posts” for kin and descendants. The messages help the viruses reading them decide how to proceed with the process of infection, according to Weizmann Institute research.

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EGFR mutations is associated with a longer median overall survival (almost double) compared with those without EGFR mutations when treated with specific targeted agents.

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People with Type 1 diabetes exhibit inflammation in the digestive tract and gut bacteria¬—a pattern that differs from individuals who do not have diabetes or those who have celiac disease, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

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Approximately 500 million people around the world are infected with the genital herpes virus known as herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV2). A vaccine that could bring an end to this global pandemic is needed desperately, yet no candidate vaccine has ever performed well in clinical trials. Now scientists in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that a new type of vaccine provides powerful protection in standard guinea pig and monkey models of HSV2 infection.

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Genetic counselors are playing a greater role in areas of medicine in the wake of advancement in genomic technology. In the last decade, genetic testing has improved dramatically, enabling medical professionals the ability to screen for common genetic conditions like Down syndrome more accurately beginning at 10 weeks gestation.

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/PRNewswire/ -- Science Exchange, the leading marketplace for scientific research, is excited to announce that the first five replication studies from the Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology (RP:CB) have been published in eLife today. Despite intense scrutiny around reproducibility in science, this project represents the first practical evaluation of reproducibility rates that may identify specific methods that result in reproducible studies. Unlike other assessments of reproducibility, the results of this project are openly accessible.

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Mount Sinai Doctors Stress Importance of Self-Examinations for Early Detection

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African-Americans are more likely than whites to experience the loss of a parent during childhood and more likely to be exposed to multiple family member deaths by mid-life, according to a study by the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.

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Mayo Clinic announced today that it has enrolled the first patient in a phase one study of a unfrozen oral capsule formulated to treat Clostridium difficile infection.

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Physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia (PAS/E) is a topic of intense debate in society, not least among critical care medicine specialists, who treat many patients at or near the end of life. Core ethical issues involved in PAS/E will be discussed and debated in a unique panel discussion at the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s (SCCM) 46th Critical Care Congress, to be held January 21 to 25, 2017, at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. These issues are also discussed in Critical Care Medicine, SCCM’s official journal, published by Wolters Kluwer. The session will be broadcast live at www.sccm.org/live. Follow #SCCMLive.

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CHICAGO --- A novel national trial for people with no established alternative to treat their rare cancers is being co-led by Northwestern Medicine investigators, who helped conceive of and develop the project.The clinical trial called DART will offer eligible cancer patients a combination of two immunotherapy drugs that help reactivate the patients’ own immune system to fight cancer.

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UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have uncovered the mechanism by which the stress hormone FGF21 keeps digestive enzymes from damaging the pancreas.

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Dr. Michaels, the longest serving Assistant Secretary in OSHA's history, returns to GW’s Milken Institute School of Public Health

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Shane Speights, D.O., has been promoted to dean of NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine’s campus at Arkansas State University. He will provide leadership for students, faculty, and staff in curriculum, community outreach and engagement, clinical service programs, research, and other areas.

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Patients who have chronic kidney disease but are not on dialysis have higher out-of-pocket healthcare expenses than even stroke and cancer patients, according to a study published in BMC Nephrology.

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A protein thought to fuel pancreatic cancer development plays a much more complicated role, a new study finds. PDX1 is critical for cancer growth, but blocking it may lead to more aggressive tumors.

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Researchers identified a panel of small molecules that inhibit Zika virus infection, including one that stands out as a potent inhibitor of Zika viral entry into relevant human cell types. They screened a library of 2,000 bioactive compounds for their ability to block Zika virus infection in three distinct cell types using two strains of the virus.

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Responding to demands from cities across the country, NYU School of Medicine’s Department of Population Health, NYU’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, and the National Resource Network, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, are launching the City Health Dashboard. The online data visualization tool will greatly improve city-level understanding of health and empower mayors, city managers, health officials, and other local stakeholders to enact policies that target the risk factors and health conditions that most impact their communities.

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Drugs used to treat HIV could affect how the body responds to syphilis, inadvertently contributing to a current outbreak, a new study suggests.

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The average anesthesiologist, emergency physician, pathologist and radiologist charge more than four times what Medicare pays for similar services, often leaving privately-insured consumers stuck with surprise medical bills that are much higher than they anticipated, new research in JAMA suggests.

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Nerve-damaging protein particles called prions have long been known to exist in mammals. Now, in a surprising discovery, investigators from Harvard Medical School report they have found evidence that bacteria can also make prions. Prions—self-propagating clumps of misfolded protein—have been identified as the cause of several rare but universally fatal neurodegenerative conditions, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy, popularly known as mad cow disease.

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The Georgia State University Research Foundation has entered into a research collaboration agreement with GeoVax Labs, Inc., a Georgia-based biotechnology company developing human vaccines, to advance development of a therapeutic vaccine for treatment of chronic Hepatitis B infections.

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A national consortium of clinical geneticists is studying the ins and outs of potentially using genome sequencing for newborn health screenings and beyond.

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Penn Medicine today launched its first Apple ResearchKit app, focused on patients with sarcoidosis, an inflammatory condition that can affect the lungs, skin, eyes, heart, brain, and other organs. The effort marks Penn’s first time using modules from Apple’s ResearchKit framework, as part of the institution’s focus on mobile health and innovative research strategies.

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Significantly more people with mental illness and substance use disorders had insurance coverage in 2014 due to the expansion of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but many barriers to treatment remain, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.

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Microbes can persist in people for years after an illness, even in people who are healthy and immune to recurrence. Now, researchers have found a clue to this seeming paradox: Persistent microbes are constantly multiplying and being killed, keeping the immune system prepared for any new encounters.

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Catherine Graves, a registered occupational therapist at Harris Health System, received the Horizon Award from the Texas Occupational Therapy Association. The award is given to a practitioner with less than five years of experience and who has made great contributions to the profession.

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New research on an aspect of the ACA/health care debate that hasn’t really been discussed—the social impact on communities. Vanderbilt professor Tara McKay was able to control for income level and other factors and still finds issues with trust, support and other issues in communities where members are uninsured.

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Vaccines are an important part of routine healthcare for adults, seniors and women who are pregnant. Older adults and seniors need protection against infectious illnesses just like children do. Dr. Cathleen Veach lists the four most important vaccines for adults.

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Opinions among parents differ when it comes to how sick is too sick to stay home, or the importance of sick day consequences such as parents missing work or kids missing tests.

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The impact of the chemicals in the plastic products used in pediatric intensive care units will be the focus of a new $1 million study led by Andrea Duncan, M.D., M.S.ClinRes, associate professor at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and an attending physician with Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital.

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Get the latest on Zika in the Zika Virus News Source

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The Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association (HOPA) applauds Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Bob Casey (D-PA) for introducing S. 109, the Pharmacy and Medically Underserved Areas Enhancement Act.

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Replacing biomass and kerosene cookstoves used throughout the developing world with clean-burning ethanol stoves may reduce hypertension and cardiovascular risk in pregnant women, according to new research published online, ahead of print in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

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In a clinical trial in Nigeria that replaced biomass and kerosene cookstoves with clean-burning ethanol stoves, researchers were able to reduce by two-thirds the risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease in pregnant women.

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Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) President and CEO, Dr. Humayun Chaudhry, sent a letter to President-Elect Donald J. Trump, outlining FSMB's medical regulation priorities.

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In a series of four articles published in the Database issue of the Nucleic Acids Research journal, DOE JGI researchers report on the latest updates to several publicly accessible databases and computational tools that benefit the global community of microbial researchers.

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Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have genetically modified mosquitoes to resist infection from dengue virus, a virus that sickens an estimated 96 million people globally each year and kills more than 20,000, mostly children.

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Would you rather shed a couple tears or have your blood drawn? Testing for nutritional deficiencies in blood can be invasive and expensive. A team led by Michigan Technological University explored what it takes to switch to tears instead and their study focuses on the nutritional connection between infants and parents.

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At “Pandemic Preparedness in the Next US Presidential Administration,” a gathering of students and global health experts from academia, government and advocacy at Georgetown on January 10, Anthony S. Fauci, MD, and other global health leaders encouraged the incoming Trump administration to plan ahead.

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Even though the Zika virus hasn’t been in the news as much lately, it remains a serious public health concern.

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The Endocrine Society unveiled the first issue of its Open Access scholarly publication the Journal of the Endocrine Society (JES) today, marking the first time the Society has introduced a new journal under its ownership in nearly 30 years.

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The worst of the global Zika virus outbreak may be over but many key questions remain, such as why the virus persists in certain tissues after the systemic infection has cleared; how does the immune system counteract the virus and protect against reinfection; what determines the likelihood of long-term complications?

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Every year in India, about 20,000 people die from rabies. Most of the victims are children. Nearly all of the deaths occur after victims are bitten by rabid dogs. For years, experts have debated the best strategy to reduce this burden. Now, a new study has identified a cost-effective way to reduce death due to rabies.