Continuing coverage: University of Arizona professors Katherine Ellingson in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and Bonnie LaFleur from the BIO5 Institute, discuss the availability and accuracy of rapid COVID-19 tests and how effective they are at slowing the spread of the virus in communities.

Tanning beds and sunbathing may be linked to a greater risk of developing endometriosis, according to a new study. Leslie Farland, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona College of Public Health and the leader of the research, said the association between endometriosis and melanoma may reflect a common genetic background or an underlying association between sun exposure and risk of endometriosis.

Tanning beds and sunbathing may be linked to a greater risk of developing endometriosis, according to a new study led by a researcher at the University of Arizona College of Public Health.

A lot of what we hear about the pandemic and its impacts has focused on hospitalizations and deaths. As those numbers stack up, the implications of this virus become fearfully clear. But what about everyone else who has contracted COVID-19? Kristen Pogreba-Brown with the University of Arizona College of Public Health is leading a new study that looks at the rest of the people who get COVID-19.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero is set to ask the City Council to consider establishing a mandatory nightly curfew in the city starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1. Pima County is already under a voluntary curfew. “The epidemiology of this outbreak is well known and described, and if we do nothing, there are enough susceptible Arizonans left to sustain this outbreak for many, many weeks past Christmas and achieving levels of transmission that pale in comparison to what we’re seeing today,” said Dr. Joe Gerald, an associate professor with the UA’s Zuckerman College of Public Health.

E-training helped massage therapists increase their knowledge of skin cancer and become more comfortable discussing risk reduction with clients.

U.S. Sen.-elect Mark Kelly writes that the lack of a national strategy is hurting our coronavirus response and recovery. "Dr. Joe Gerald, a member of my transition team and a researcher at the University of Arizona who has been analyzing COVID-19 data, described how cases are rising quickly and that our health-care system could soon be struggling to keep up, just like it did last summer," Kelly writes.

A team of university researchers says a statewide shelter-in-place order could help avert a "catastrophe" in Arizona hospitals. "It has now reached a point to where we are truly in a crisis here in Arizona. The sooner we intervene the better off we will be. Every day of delay will result in needless hospital admissions and ultimately, what we also care about — deaths," Joe Gerald, UA public health researcher and COVID-19 modeling team leader.

The health officials in charge of making models, or predictions, as to where the virus is spreading are painting a dire warning about the holidays. “If something is not done quickly, we worry that this outbreak will overwhelm our hospital system by the end of December,” said Joe Gerald, PhD, an Associate Professor of Public Health at the University of Arizona. “We’re very worried that his is a very vulnerable period.”

With more than 1 million travelers dispersing across the country in one day, health experts are asking those who gathered with people outside their households over Thanksgiving week to get tested for Covid-19. Arizona's test positivity on Monday was almost 20%. If officials there don't address the rise in cases in the next few weeks, the state will suffer hundreds of preventable deaths, the University of Arizona's Zuckerman College of Public Health said in a report Friday.