Feature Channels: Public Health

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How concerned should you be about Zika virus? Colorado State University researchers weigh in on the topic.

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New research published in Nature has shown how genome sequencing can be rapidly established to monitor outbreaks.

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Treating trauma in juvenile offenders can aid social relationships that help them stay out of trouble, according to a new study by researchers at Case Western Reserve University.

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Expiratory central airway collapse may have a stronger connection to underlying lung disease than previously believed. CT scans may make it a valuable biomarker for impending or worsening lung disease.

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A multi-institution team of researchers has successfully mapped the genome of Cimex lectularius, the common bed bug. Among the findings, scientists discovered more than 800 instances of genes being transferred from bacteria to the bed bug’s chromosomes.

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Hepatitis C in Ghana is NOT spread through drug-related equipment but largely through tribal and traditional customs, according to a PLOS ONE study co-authored by Jennifer Layden, MD, Ph.D, infectious disease Loyola University Health System.

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A faculty member in the University of Georgia’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences found that adults going on a one- to three-week vacation gained an average of nearly 1 pound during their trips. With the average American reportedly gaining 1-2 pounds a year, the study’s findings suggest an alarming trend.

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In a 14-year study involving more than 2,000 teen smokers in 50 Washington state high schools, a team of cancer prevention researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found that one year of telephone counseling using motivational interviewing and skills training delivered during the senior year of high school is insufficient to help the smokers quit and stay quit up to six years into young adulthood.

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Loved ones of cancer patients are likely to search for further information about the disease online but less inclined to seek emotional support from social media forums, according to a University of Georgia study published recently in the journal Computers, Informatics, Nursing.

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When it comes to prescription painkillers, the difference between controlling pain and dying from an overdose may come down to how strong a prescription the doctor wrote, according to a new study in veterans. And the threshold for safe prescribing may be lower than most people think – or than most guidelines recommend.

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Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System report data suggesting that e-cigarettes are toxic to human airway cells, suppress immune defenses and alter inflammation, while at the same time boosting bacterial virulence. The mouse study is published January 25 by the Journal of Molecular Medicine.

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Academy, other stakeholders offer recommendations for improvement.

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Some of the most widely used commercial chemicals to kill bedbugs are not effective because the pesky insects have built up a tolerance to them, according to a team of researchers from Virginia Tech and New Mexico State University.

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A lethal concoction of racing fuel and Mountain Dew claimed the lives of two Tennessee teens and has sparked the Tennessee Poison Center (TPC) to warn about the lethality of what has been called “Dewshine.”

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An analysis of 145 different electronic-cigarette flavoring products reveals that many e-cigarette users may be exposed to a potentially harmful chemical, benzaldehyde. The highest concentrations were detected in vapor from cherry-flavored products.

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Article Body 2010 Mistrust toward breast cancer treatment and the health care system at large were expressed by African Americans who participated in Chicago focus groups, suggests new research led by an expert on the health of vulnerable populations at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. It's mistrust that physicians need to be especially aware of, said Sarah Gehlert, PhD, the E.

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Joint statement urges parents, young adults and physicians to act to increase vaccination rates.

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The American Cleaning Institute (ACI) has moved into the final phase of its Cleaning Product Ingredient Safety Initiative (CPISI) in 2016. It’s goal is to provide complete safety information for every ingredient used in every formulated consumer cleaning product manufactured by ACI member companies.

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A smartphone app containing motivational videos developed to help married rural women in India better understand contraceptive choices led to a dramatic increase in the number of women using modern family planning methods in just a few months, new Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) research suggests.

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Large Latin American study links inactivity with hot flashes and more at midlife.

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Researchers find that having ‘skin in the game’ is not enough of an incentive to shop for less expensive care.

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New Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests there may actually be less serious crime near outpatient drug treatment clinics than other community businesses.

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A new name in global health – Vital Strategies was launched today, with a mission of reducing disease and premature death and helping to deliver a world where every person has the protection of a strong public health system (vitalstrategies.org).

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Fourth-year medical student Alvin Chan is taking a novel approach to raise HPV awareness … a comic novel approach. He and his colleagues created and evaluated a fotonovela (photographic comic book) designed to improve human papillomavirus vaccination acceptance in the United States, particularly among Latinos.

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Texting while driving is a significant risk factor for automobile collisions, and cell phone use while driving is especially prevalent among young people. More than half (52 percent) of a sample of 861 college students surveyed by the University of Maryland School of Public Health reported that they had texted while driving at least once in the past month.

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The Zika virus, unlike other mosquito-borne viruses such as dengue, is relatively unknown and unstudied. That is set to change since Zika, now spreading through Latin America and the Caribbean, has been associated with an alarming rise in babies born in Brazil with abnormally small heads and brain defects – a condition called microcephaly.

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Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and New York State Psychiatric Institute have found that while cigarette smoking rates have declined among younger people in the United States, those who do smoke are more likely to have a psychiatric or substance use disorder compared with those who began smoking in earlier decades.

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EL PASO, Texas – Gastroenterologists at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso (TTUHSC El Paso) have received a grant of nearly $470,000 to continue their research on gastroparesis, a condition that prevents the stomach from emptying properly.

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University of Notre Dame researchers have reported the discovery of a major population of the mosquito species Aedes aegypti, the species capable of carrying tropical diseases such as Zika virus, dengue fever and chikungunya, in a Capitol Hill neighborhood in Washington, D.C. To add insult to injury, the team identified genetic evidence that these mosquitoes have overwintered for at least the past four years, meaning they are adapting for persistence in a northern climate well out of their normal range.

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When compared with their heterosexual peers, sexual-minority youth score lower on key indicators of positive youth development—and those disparities may be due in part to more bullying of these adolescents, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health researchers have found.

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– Teens without homes, many of whom have suffered at the hands of those entrusted with providing them care and kindness, often refuse to seek warmth and nourishment at shelters.

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Workers at New York City hookah bars are inhaling hazardous levels of carbon monoxide and nicotine while at work, signaling yet another breach by their employers of New York City’s anti-smoking bylaws.

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Zika Virus is spread through bites from the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a primary focus of research for Canisius professor. Costanza, PhD, studies the natural history of these blood-sucking insects to better understand their implications on human health.