Feature Channels: Public Health

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Across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, homicides of police officers are linked to the statewide level of gun ownership, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study found that police officers serving in states with high private gun ownership are more than three times more likely to be killed on the job than those on the job in states with the lowest gun ownership.

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In this month’s release, find new embargoed research about childhood obesity and overweight prevalence in Massachusetts, gun ownership rates and law enforcement homicide risk; and injury risk for commercial bicyclists.

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When a mosquito decides to dine on your blood, you typically know it – there’s pain, itch, and annoyance. Ticks, on the other hand, take a stealthier approach.

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For smokers, the number of cigarettes smoked per day and current body mass index are predictive of changes in weight after quitting smoking, according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine.

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Alcoholism inflicts a heavy physical, emotional and financial toll on individuals and society. Now new discoveries and promising animal studies are offering a glimmer of hope that a new class of drugs could treat the disease without many of the unwanted side effects caused by current therapies. The scientists are presenting their work today at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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The start of the school year means new classes, new friends, homework and sports. It also brings the threat of head lice. Scientists report today that lice populations in at least 25 states have developed resistance to over-the-counter treatments still widely recommended by doctors and schools. The researchers are presenting their work today at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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Human consumption of bacterially contaminated water causes millions of deaths each year throughout the world—primarily among children. A researcher at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society today will discuss an inexpensive, simple and easily transportable nanotechnology-based method to purify drinking water. She calls it The Drinkable BookTM, and each page is impregnated with bacteria-killing metal nanoparticles.

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Cross contamination in commercial processing facilities that prepare spinach and other leafy greens for the market can make people sick. But researchers are reporting a new, easy-to-implement method that could eliminate or reduce such incidences. The scientists will present their work at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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When a fever strikes in a developing area, the immediate concern may be: Is it the common flu or something much worse? To facilitate diagnosis in remote, low-resource settings, researchers have developed a paper-based device that changes color, depending on whether the patient has Ebola, yellow fever or dengue. It takes minutes and does not need electricity. The team will describe their approach at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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In a phase III trial reported in the August 2015 issue of Pediatrics, the new combination vaccine was determined to be effective, safe and well-tolerated.

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People infected with the hepatitis C virus are at risk for liver damage, but the results of a new Johns Hopkins study now show the infection may also spell heart trouble.

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Findings from a pair of new studies could speed up the development of a universally accurate diagnostic test for human herpes simplex viruses (HSV), according to researchers at Johns Hopkins and Harvard universities and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The work may also lead to the development of a vaccine that protects against the virus.

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The study showed that patients with community-acquired pneumonia who received corticosteroids were discharged from hospital sooner, and results showed a reduction in the need for mechanical ventilation and the likelihood of life-threatening complications.

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A study by researchers at NYU Steinhardt finds that the severity of drunk driving within the state is not the most important predictor of whether states adopt new laws to restrict drunk driving – nor is the political makeup of the state government. Instead, the two strongest predictors of states adopting their first drunk driving laws were having a large population of young people and a neighboring state with similar driving laws.

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Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers say they have developed a method that could make a nasal spray flu vaccine effective for those under two and over 49 – two groups for which the vaccine is not approved.

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UF/IFAS researchers continue to study ways to nip the virus in the bud and monitor its spread. Researchers at the UF/IFAS Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory in Vero Beach track rainfall, groundwater levels, mosquito abundance, wild bird populations and virus transmission to animals including horses and sentinel chickens. Researchers use these data to track the virus transmission between mosquitoes and wild birds, noting when mosquito infection rates reach the levels that can infect humans. They document background on West Nile virus in Florida in a new article in the Journal of Medical Entomology.

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By providing workers with a portable pedaling device, Lucas Carr, an assistant professor in the Department of Health and Human Physiology and member of the Obesity Research and Education Initiative at the University of Iowa, discovered people who were once sitting all day were now moving at work without even getting up.

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Sexting and Internet safety climb higher on the public’s list of major health concerns for children across the U.S.

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A researcher at the University of Warwick has received international recognition for his contribution to AIDS research.

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The compound that detectives spray at crime scenes to find trace amounts of blood may one day be used to kill the malaria parasite.

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A web-based programme to encourage more frequent handwashing reduces the risk of catching and passing on respiratory tract infections to other household members, a randomised trial of more than 16,000 UK households published in The Lancet has found.

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A study from scientists at The Scripps Research Institute explores a bacterial enzyme that might be used as a drug candidate to help people quit smoking. The research shows this enzyme can be recreated in lab settings and possesses a number of promising characteristics for drug development.

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Lax state vaccination laws contribute to lower immunization rates and increased outbreaks of preventable diseases—like whooping cough and measles—according to a new study from the University of Georgia.

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A study led by the University of Utah School of Medicine finds that every child puts a household at increased risk for viral infections. Childless households had infections during 3-4 weeks of the year, while families with six children were infected for 45 weeks. But only half who tested positive reported feeling ill. Published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, the results can help families and health care providers know when illness should be cause for concern.

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Despite a significant decline in tobacco use by adults, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), smoking rates in individuals with poor mental health remained the same for a decade, according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine by researchers at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

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Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that more than one in four female sex workers in two Mexican cities on the U.S. border entered the sex trade younger than age 18; one in eight before their 16th birthday. These women were more than three times more likely to become infected with HIV than those who started sex work as adults.

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Scientists conclude that increasing life jacket wear by only 20 percent would have saved 1,721 out of 3,047 boaters involved in accidents between 2008 and 2011, a finding that could be used to argue for regulations requiring use of the safety devices.

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Children who sleep in unventilated rooms with cooking fires are at greater risk for severe trachoma, a leading cause of preventable blindness in developing countries, according to the findings of a recent study conducted in Tanzania. The study was supported by the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.

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When the European Medicines Agency recommended to approve what could be the world’s first licensed vaccine against malaria, it reflected the life’s work of Ruth and Victor Nussenzweig, whose research over the past half-century against malaria has brought them international acclaim – and which contributed greatly to this latest breakthrough.

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Michael Niederweis of the University of Alabama at Birmingham describes the first known toxin of the pathogenic bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This necrotizing toxin is the founding member of a novel class of previously unrecognized toxins present in 246 bacterial and fungal species.

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Soils provide nutrients, biodiversity and physical support, all crucial to healthy living

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Public health agencies across the globe are challenged with preventing the spread of chronic diseases while dealing with limited funds and devastating budget cuts. Now, a researcher at the University of Missouri has applied the Public Health Index (PHI) model, a tool he designed that has been adopted by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, to help the Brazilian government identify and prioritize health risks affecting its population. Researcher Eduardo Simoes says if more public health agencies adopted this tool to identify top health risks associated with chronic diseases among their specific populations, limited funding for prevention efforts could be proportionately allocated.

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Attention control training reduces attention bias variability, improves PTSD symptoms

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Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center researchers at the VCU Center for the Study of Tobacco Products (CSTP) have developed the first ever, evidence-based model that can predict with up to 90 percent accuracy the amount of nicotine emitted by an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette).

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Health experts have warned for years that the overuse of antibiotics is creating “superbugs” able to resist drugs treating infection. Now scientists at Indiana University and elsewhere are finding evidence that an invisible war between microorganisms may also be catching humans in the crossfire.

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According to the Sandy Child and Family Health Study, a major report on NJ residents living in Superstorm Sandy’s path, over 100,000 experienced significant structural damage to their primary homes. Conducted by Rutgers University, New York University (NYU), Columbia University and Colorado State University, research finds that tens of thousands still live with unfinished repairs, disputed claims and recurrent mold, all associated with increased odds of mental health distress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression.

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Periodic telephone counseling can be a highly effective, low-cost tool for lowering blood-sugar levels in minority, urban adults with uncontrolled diabetes. The findings are the result of a clinical trial led by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and their collaborators at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (Health Department). The study published online today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

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A new study published in the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making aims to evaluate the types of search strategies that Internet users adopt when trying to solve a complicated health problem.

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As the beginning of the school year approaches, parents need to remind their children about the importance of hand washing. Every day people touch several surfaces including books, desks, door knobs, sink handles, and other people and many of them harbor germs like bacteria and viruses that can cause illnesses.

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Scientists uncover a port of liver entry for malaria parasites, and if these results hold up in humans, drugs that target this entry protein might help prevent the spread of disease.

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A biomarker found in the blood of alcohol users is significantly higher in binge drinkers than in those who consume alcohol moderately, according to a study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The biomarker, called phosphatidylethanol (PEth), could be used to screen young adults for harmful or heavy drinking such as binge drinking.

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Under-vaccinated communities face heightened risk of measles outbreaks that can spread nationally within a year unless squelched quickly, but a vigorous vaccination response during a 2014 outbreak in North American Amish communities in Ohio prevented widespread transmission, according to a recent study published in the online version of Risk Analysis, a publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

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Like a collection of ragtag villagers fighting off an invading army, the mix of bacteria that live in our guts may band together to keep dangerous infections from taking hold, new research suggests. But some “villages” may succeed better than others at holding off the invasion, because of key differences in the kinds of bacteria that make up their feisty population.

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A survey of 324 multiunit owners/operators in South Dakota showed that adopting those policies reduced maintenance costs while improving safety. The research was a collaborative project involving nursing researchers at South Dakota State University and the South Dakota Department of Health. State tobacco control officials have developed materials to help more apartment owners institute voluntary smoke-free policies.

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The World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ), in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), is organizing a series of two-day Training of Trainers workshops.

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The WFSJ will be holding infectious diseases and Ebola and pandemic influenza training workshops, as well as a viral hepatitis education package for health journalists in 2015.