Feature Channels: Public Health

• share
• favorite_border

A novel 'origami' rapid diagnostic test for malaria has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

• share
• favorite_border

New research from Saint Louis University finds that the prices for commonly used generic heart failure drugs varies widely.

• share
• favorite_border

The design is confidential, but essentially the device substitutes for the second hand, producing a bulge that holds the insulin needle stable in the subcutaneous fat.

• share
• favorite_border

There’s a war raging on a tiny battlefield and the outcome could well touch millions of people worldwide threatened by Zika and related viruses. The key ally unlocking the mystery surrounding this conflict is the long-dreaded yellow fever virus.

• share
• favorite_border

Tuberculosis (TB) is responsible for more than 1.8 million deaths each year, according to the World Health Organization, yet there has been little significant improvement in therapies in the past 20 years. This chronic disease is systemic, meaning it affects not only the lungs but also other organs, such as the lymph nodes and spleen. But a promising new treatment may be on the horizon.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Providing access to NCCN Templates® through Cerner’s PowerChart Oncology™ will help practitioners make informed treatment decisions based on up-to-date, standard protocols

• share
• favorite_border

The rate of adolescents reporting a recent bout of clinical depression grew by 37 percent over the decade ending in 2014, with one in six girls reporting an episode in the past year, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health-led research suggests.

• share
• favorite_border

For people living with sickle cell disease, chronic pain becomes an all too familiar part of everyday life. The UT Physicians Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center is working to help change that.

• share
• favorite_border

'A plumper baby is not necessarily a healthier baby'

• share
• favorite_border

People with diabetes are one step closer to more easily checking their blood glucose levels with a non-invasive device for detecting and monitoring blood glucose levels, which is currently in development. The hand-held breathalyzer device detects acetone, which has been linked to high blood glucose levels in the breath. The research is being presented at the 2016 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting and Exposition, the world’s largest pharmaceutical sciences meeting. The meeting is taking place in Denver Nov. 13–17.

• share
• favorite_border

A large global survey finds gaps in communication between doctors who treat rheumatoid arthritis and their patients, even though most physicians believe good communication and patient engagement are important to achieve the best outcomes.

• share
• favorite_border

A bilingual support group addressing the psychological and educational needs of patients with lupus and their families is a valuable resource to help them cope, according to a study at Hospital for Special Surgery.

• share
• favorite_border

Millions of people will be traveling next week for Thanksgiving. Deep vein thrombosis can fatal for travelers if they sit for too long on a plane or in a car.

• share
• favorite_border

Hunter Pye, 16, was a high school football player, a wrestler, and strong in academics as well. Life was rockin’ along great for the Little Rock teen – but then everything changed.

• share
• favorite_border

A study being presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting found only 18 percent of non-nursing school staff surveyed felt very confident in their ability to recognize anaphylaxis symptoms. Only 19 percent felt very confident that they could correctly treat a child having a severe allergic reaction.

• share
• favorite_border

Curiosity is a driving factor in why most kids start smoking, and the same is true for kids with asthma. A study presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting found adolescents with asthma were twice as likely to smoke as kids without asthma. And they continue to smoke well into their teen years, even though they know smoking is particularly bad for their lungs.

• share
• favorite_border

• Individuals with constipation had a 13% higher likelihood of developing chronic kidney disease and a 9% higher likelihood of developing kidney failure compared with individuals without constipation. • More severe constipation was linked with an incrementally higher risk for both chronic kidney disease and kidney failure.

• share
• favorite_border

At a groundbreaking rally on World Diabetes Day, Nov. 14, NY community health leaders demand the state declare a public health emergency as the first step in effective response to uncontrolled epidemic devastating millions

• share
• favorite_border

A rare neurological disease has recently taken center stage in the United States. Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) has been identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the cause of eight hospitalizations in the Seattle-area alone, all of which involved children with polio-like symptoms. As of September 2016, 89 people in 33 states were confirmed to have AFM, with the CDC expressing concern about the sharp spike in cases in recent months.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists stress need for thorough research into flavored e-liquids.

• share
• favorite_border

A study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), in collaboration with scientists at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson and Gilead Sciences, Inc., has demonstrated that combining an experimental vaccine with an innate immune stimulant may help lead to viral remission in people living with HIV. In animal trials, the combination decreased levels of viral DNA in peripheral blood and lymph nodes, and improved viral suppression and delayed viral rebound following discontinuation of anti-retroviral therapy (ART). The research team’s findings appeared online today in the journal Nature.

• share
• favorite_border

In this preclinical study, 100 percent of the animal models were protected from Zika after vaccination followed by a challenge with the Zika virus. In addition, they were protected from degeneration in the cerebral cortex and hippocampal areas of the brain, while the other cohort showed degeneration of the brain after Zika infection.

• share
• favorite_border

Mark Gregory Robson has been on a global health crusade for decades. The Rutgers professor has spent countless hours in Thailand, the Philippines, Liberia and other countries working on pesticide issues, education and training. He is Board of Governors distinguished service professor and professor of plant biology and pathology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

• share
• favorite_border

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) recently awarded $596,533.00 to Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CPI) to initiate a partnership with Texas Biomedical Research Institute aimed at repurposing an antimalarial for use against the Ebola virus.

• share
• favorite_border

A new report finds some progress in combatting pneumonia and diarrhea among young children in the nations most severely impacted by the two diseases, but they remain responsible for hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths around the world.

• share
• favorite_border

Wichita State University physician assistant (PA) program alumnus Troy Richardson recently completed his eight-week elective clinical rotation in Puerto Rico and helped pave the way for students in the College of Health Professions (CHP) at Wichita State to participate in experiential learning on the island.

• share
• favorite_border

EL PASO, Texas — Co-principal investigators Richard McCallum, M.D., and Irene Sarosiek, M.D., have received a five-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). The funds will support basic research and clinical trials on patients living with a digestive disorder named gastroparesis.

• share
• favorite_border

Immunotherapy has revolutionized treatment options in oncology, neurology, and many infectious diseases and now there is fresh hope that the same method could be used to treat or even functionally cure HIV, according to two related studies from Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

• share
• favorite_border

Libraries are uniquely positioned to address public health needs in underserved populations, according to findings from a study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the Free Library of Philadelphia in this month’s issue of Health Affairs. The research team then took these findings a step further, developing a pilot program to train library staff into “community health specialists.”

• share
• favorite_border

MINNEAPOLIS – A new study suggests probable scientific misconduct in at least some of 33 bone health trials published in various medical journals. The study used statistical methods to detect scientific misconduct or research fraud and calls into question the validity of a body of research work led mainly by one researcher in Japan. The study is published in the November 9, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

Research suggests feedback loop between greater executive function and healthy behavior

• share
• favorite_border

Baylor Scott & White Research Institute will be home to one of four new Centers of Research Translation, or CORTs. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases will fund $8.5 million over five years toward the center’s research, which aims to better understand the development of severe lupus in children and could ultimately lead to new personalized treatments.

• share
• favorite_border

A key component to achieving good patient outcomes in the healthcare world is having the right number and type of healthcare professionals with the right resources. This is still a large problem for many countries throughout the world. A recent NYU Meyers study examines if country-level contextual factors have an impact on Human Resources for Health (HRH) and to what extent social and political determinants impact how healthcare resources contribute to patient outcomes in varying degrees.

• share
• favorite_border

Television cooking shows are an important resource for home cooks, but if these shows fail to model recommended food safety measures, it may lead to poor practices among consumers. Therefore, researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst devised a study to assess food safety on television food shows and determine whether they present positive or negative models for viewers.

• share
• favorite_border

Johns Hopkins University received a $10 million grant from the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation to explore Lyme disease and develop potential new therapies to address the illness. Johns Hopkins is the only institution in the nation to receive multiple Lyme disease grants from the foundation.

• share
• favorite_border

click to view recent experts and research related to the 2016 Election

• share
• favorite_border

As the world moves toward universal health coverage, the question arises: How can governments ensure equitable access to essential medicines in low- and middle-income countries? A section of The Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines Policies report, released today, finds that funding for a “basket” of these essential medicines may pose a challenge, but not necessarily an insurmountable one, for the global health community.

• share
• favorite_border

“Pneumonia is the top infection-linked killer of children globally,” says Roomi Nusrat, MD, a member of the American Thoracic Society’s Pneumonia Working Group and Allergy, Immunology and Inflammation Assembly. “It is responsible for more than 50,000 deaths each year in the U.S.”

• share
• favorite_border

Outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease chikungunya appear to be driven by infections centered in and around the home, with women significantly more likely to become ill, suggests new research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Institut Pasteur in Paris and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).

• share
• favorite_border

For the first time, scientists have prevented urinary tract infections in mice by vaccinating them with tiny molecules that UTI bacteria usually use to grab iron from their host and fuel the growth of bacteria in the bladder.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Houston Methodist researchers have discovered a set of immune proteins that facilitate long-lasting immunity against malaria. In a study recently published in Immunity (online Oct. 25), researchers reported that elevated production of specific proteins regulating the immune system within 24 hours of infection was required for a resilient and sustained anti-malaria immunity in mice.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, have isolated a human monoclonal antibody that in a mouse model "markedly reduced" infection by the Zika virus.

• share
• favorite_border

Two researchers at the UNC School of Medicine have been named to a global consortium for Zika research and vaccine development.

• share
• favorite_border

The American Society of Nephrology (ASN), the world’s largest organization of kidney health professionals, released the latest analysis of the US adult nephrology workforce authored by George Washington University (GWU) researchers. • GWU’s report details a mixed picture for the specialty. The job market for US medical graduates is improving, yet the inflow of new nephrologists is outpacing the rate of retirement for older physicians. GWU projects a 58% increase in the ratio of adult nephrologists per 10,000 population between now and 2030.

• share
• favorite_border

UT Southwestern Medical Center has received three major health care awards, including recognitions for being among the top 5 percent of hospitals on quality measures during 2016 and for top patient satisfaction scores.

• share
• favorite_border

Some patients with rare primary immunodeficiency disorders may be at risk for infection by rubella virus, and possibly serious skin inflammation, after receiving the rubella vaccine, usually administered as part of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. Although the vaccine for rubella (German measles) has an established record of safety and effectiveness in the general population, patients with severe deficiencies in their immune defenses may be susceptible to side effects from the vaccine.

• share
• favorite_border

Using prominent, graphic pictures on cigarette packs warning against smoking could avert more than 652,000 deaths, up to 92,000 low birth weight infants, up to 145,000 preterm births, and about 1,000 cases of sudden infant deaths in the U.S. over the next 50 years, say researchers from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

• share
• favorite_border

Although the understanding of cough triggered by occupational and environmental causes has improved, experts say there is still a gap between current guidelines and clinical practice. A report by the CHEST Expert Cough Panel published in the journal CHEST suggests an approach to investigating occupational and environmental causes when these are suspected. The report has been endorsed by professional associations in the U.S., Canada, and Asia.