Feature Channels: Public Health

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Changing just one seated meeting per week at work into a walking meeting increased the work-related physical activity levels of white-collar workers by 10 minutes, according to a new study published by public health researchers with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The study, published June 24, 2016 in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's journal Preventing Chronic Disease, suggests a possible new health promotion approach to improving the health of millions of white-collar workers who spend most of their workdays sitting in chairs.

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An unprecedented alliance of leading scientists, medical experts, and children's health advocates argue that today's scientific evidence supports a link between exposures to toxic chemicals in air, food, and everyday products and children's risks for neurodevelopmental disorders. The alliance, known as Project TENDR, which stands for "Targeting Environmental Neuro-Developmental Risks," is calling for immediate action to significantly reduce exposures to toxic chemicals to protect brain development.

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Tufts scientists have identified factors linked to why individual mycobacteria of the same genetic background can respond differently to antibiotics. The findings shed light on the complexity of antibiotic tolerance and may improve the future design of drug regimens.

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A course at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), in Bethesda, Md., is teaching students global health care delivery in a unique way that’s sure to be a “thriller.”

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Timothy CaroneElectric car maker Tesla Motors revealed Thursday (June 30) that federal regulators are investigating its autopilot software after a fatal crash involving a semitrailer. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened the investigation after a man was killed May 7 in Williston, Florida, while driving a Model S with the self-driving mode engaged.

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In a study with potentially major implications for the future treatment of autoimmunity and related conditions, scientists have found a way to remove the subset of antibody-making cells that cause an autoimmune disease, without harming the rest of the immune system.

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Recreational water illness is the overall term for sickness caused by bacteria or viruses in pools, lakes, rivers and other places people like to swim or play in hot weather. And the way these illnesses are often spread comes down to fecal contamination in the water.

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Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have confirmed that a benign bacterium called Wolbachia pipientis can completely block transmission of Zika virus in Aedes aegypti. Matthew Aliota, a scientist at the UW–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM), says the bacteria could present a “novel biological control mechanism,” aiding efforts to stop the spread of Zika virus.

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Doctors take a look at fireworks, safety issues, and concerns.

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• The likelihood of developing membranous nephropathy, an immune disorder of the kidneys that can lead to kidney failure, increased 13% annually over 11 years in China. • Regions with high levels of fine particulate air pollution had the highest rates of membranous nephropathy.

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An Independent Panel formed to review the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s response to Ebola calls for increased coordination both within HHS and across all involved federal agencies and strengthened coordination and collaboration with state and local governments and their private-sector partners.

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With mosquito season underway, SLU vaccine researchers have received NIH funding to study the body’s immune response to Zika.

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NIBIB-funded scientists used computers to model the formation of tuberculosis granulomas in the lung -- the non-active (latent) form of infection found in 2 billion individuals worldwide (11 million in the U.S.) that can activate to become a life-threatening infection. Employing a computer model aims to speed analysis of TB’s complex life-cycle and to identify potential new antibiotics, antibiotic targets, and biomarkers that can predict transition to active infection.

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High mosquito and human population densities, combined with mosquito breeding conditions, are the central cause for Zika virus.

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A team of experts has put together a list of the key diagnostic tests that every country should have available, with high quality standards, in order to make the best use of the World Health Organization's list of essential medicines. Many developing countries will need help with establishing high-quality labs to use them, but in the end it may be cost effective.

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Led by Claudio Soto, Ph.D., researchers from McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) have been awarded $11 million from the NIAID to study the pathogenesis, transmission and detection of prion diseases – such as chronic wasting disease in deer – that can potentially spread to humans.

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Big data has a bright future in personalized medicine, as demonstrated by an international competition centered at Rice University that suggested ways forward for treatment of patients with leukemia.

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Chemists at The Ohio State University are developing paper strips that detect diseases including cancer and malaria—for a cost of 50 cents per strip.

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New research from the University of British Columbia shows a higher risk of mortality during extreme heat events in neighbourhoods that tend to get hotter and where people tend to be poorer.

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Oxford, June 28, 2016 - Owning a car or bicycle has the strongest influence on how much active travel a Londoner engages in. Car ownership leaves them two to three times less likely to travel actively. And in Outer London, simply owning a bicycle makes you more likely to get 30 minutes of active travel in, even if you have not used it recently. These findings, published in a study in the Journal of Transport & Health, will help policymakers better target interventions to promote active travel.

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In a surprising about-face, researchers have determined that a protocol providing physical therapy to ICU patients did not shorten hospital length of stay. The study, which is the largest to-date, reversed the findings from earlier pilot studies.

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University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers studying monkeys have shown that one infection with Zika virus protects against future infection, though pregnancy may drastically prolong the time the virus stays in the body.

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The rapid development of a safe and effective vaccine to prevent the Zika virus (ZIKV) is a global priority, as infection in pregnant women has been shown to lead to fetal microcephaly and other major birth defects. The World Health Organization declared the Zika virus epidemic a global public health emergency on February 1, 2016.

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Volanesorsen, an experimental lipid-lowering medication, improved insulin sensitivity and glucose control by significantly decreasing patients’ overall hemoglobin A1c – the standard clinical measurement of blood glucose levels for diabetics – in a new study reported by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The results are published online this month in Diabetes Care.

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Policy makers’ and public health officials’ proper reactions could hold down the total costs to U.S. GDP of an influenza outbreak. Otherwise, costs could be nearly double previous estimates.

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Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine experts and colleagues in the United States and Africa have received an $11 million, five-year NIH grant to understand why some people living with HIV in Africa avoid becoming infected with the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB) despite exposure to high-TB-risk circumstances.

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Doctors and scientists at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City printed and used a 3D kidney to help save a patient's organ during a complicated tumor-removal procedural.

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UCLA Health Experts are available to discuss a wide variety of topics of interest for the month of July.

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AMGA today recommended that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) increase possible pathways to participate in Medicare as an advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM) in written comments on the proposed rule implementing the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). In addition, AMGA addressed many other issues, including the restrictions on qualifying as an advanced APM, risk adjustment and resource use measurement under the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), and the importance of considering outcomes when determining value in health care.

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The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have been awarded over $5 million to serve as a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Prevention Epicenter site to help develop and test innovative approaches to preventing superbugs and improving patient safety.

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The 2009 swine H1N1 flu pandemic — responsible for more than 17,000 deaths worldwide — originated in pigs from a very small region in central Mexico, a research team headed by investigators at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is reporting.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that an old drug once mostly used to treat amebiasis — a disease caused by a parasite — and induce vomiting in cases of poisoning appears to also halt replication of cytomegalovirus (CMV), a herpesvirus that can cause serious disease in immunocompromised individuals, including those with HIV or organ transplant recipients.

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High workload, rigid rules, and conflicting pressures from their employers are all leading to community pharmacy staff deviating from standard procedures at times to ensure patients receive the tailored care they require, a new study from The University of Manchester has found.

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If the United States responds to Zika the way it did to Ebola—and early indications are that in many ways it is—the country can expect missteps brought about by a lack of health care coordination and a lot of political finger pointing, according to an analysis by the University of Michigan.

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A team of scientists has uncovered the global, evolving, and historic make-up of Plasmodium vivax, one of the five species of malaria that infect humans. The research, which links the spread of the parasite back to colonial seafaring, among other phenomena, underscores the challenges health experts face in controlling the parasite.

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Kansas State University is helping the fight against Zika virus through mosquito research at the Biosecurity Research Institute.

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It’s no secret that social environments can play a role in the development as well as recovery from substance-abuse problems. A new study, designed to uncover how individual relationships respond to substance use and social influences, has found that the links between substance use and social connections are bidirectional and strong.

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Before your family heads to Mexico, Asia or beyond, do a little planning ahead of time to keep everyone healthy during their journey. Dr. Nava Yeganeh, an assistant professor of pediatric infectious diseases and director of the Pediatric International Travel and Adoption Clinic at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA, explains three important strategies.

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The minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) in the U.S. regulates the age at which individuals can legally purchase and possess alcohol in public. An MLDA of 21 has been linked to a number of benefits, including a lower risk for alcoholism in adulthood. However, no studies have examined linkages between exposure to MLDAs during young adulthood and mortality later in life. This study examined if young adults – college and non-college students – exposed to a permissive MLDA (younger than 21) had a higher risk of death from alcohol-related chronic diseases compared to those exposed to an MLDA of 21.

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A group of Western Illinois University student and faculty researchers are spending the summer conducting surveillance of tick-borne diseases and mosquito-borne arboviruses in regional counties.

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The American Mosquito Control Association’s annual National Mosquito Control Awareness Week aims to educate about the significance of mosquitoes and the importance of eliminating them. Amy Lawhorne, vice president and brand leader at Mosquito Squad, the largest and most experienced home and commercial mosquito control firm in the country, is putting mosquitoes on notice.

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The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System Regional Association (GCOOS-RA) has been awarded $1.8 million a year for the next five years to support data collection and distribution in the Gulf of Mexico.

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A Loyola Medicine liver transplant patient won three medals and a heart transplant won one medal during the 2016 Transplant Games.

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Saint Louis University's vaccine center has been tapped by the National Institutes of Health to conduct a human clinical trial of a vaccine to prevent the Zika virus, which can cause devastating birth defects in babies.

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Previous exposure to the dengue virus may increase the potency of Zika infection, according to research from Imperial College London.

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Math, biology and nanotechnology are becoming strange, yet effective bed-fellows in the fight against cancer treatment resistance. Researchers at the University of Waterloo and Harvard Medical School have engineered a revolutionary new approach to cancer treatment that pits a lethal combination of drugs together into a single nanoparticle.

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The neurodegeneration that occurs in Parkinson's disease is a result of stress on the endoplasmic reticulum in the cell rather than failure of the mitochondria as previously thought, according to a study in fruit flies. It was found that the death of neurons associated with the disease was prevented when chemicals that block the effects of endoplasmic reticulum stress were used.

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RTI International will serve as the data coordinating center for a multi-country study to evaluate the magnitude of health risks that Zika virus infection poses to pregnant women and their developing fetuses and infants. The study is led by the National Institutes of Health and Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz.