Health Sciences In The Media

Joe Gerald, MD, PhD, an assistant professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, has been modeling the pandemic for Arizona for the past year and a half. In his weekly report, Dr. Gerald noted how case rates have risen 62% over the past three weeks as well. "For most counties, current rates exceed those observed at the height of the summer 2020 wave."

Lise Alschuler, ND, FABNO, associate director of the Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the UArizona Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, has seen some benefits with zinc. "Zinc supplementation has been shown in many clinical trials to shorten the duration of the common cold.”

COVID-19 cases in Arizona show signs of "exponential" growth, according to a new report published by the Arizona Public Health Association, based on analysis by Joe Gerald, MD, PhD, associate professor and director of the public health policy and management program at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, who noted an "abrupt increase in transmission levels among all age groups starting in early October."

It is true that excess weight around the waist and deep in the abdomen near organs is associated with higher hospitalization and death rates with COVID. “People who think only obese people are in the hospital should come to Banner and see, like I do every day, that not everyone who dies is obese. The main issue is that COVID is unpredictable,” said Elizabeth Connick, MD, chief of infectious diseases at the College of Medicine – Tucson and Banner-University Medical Center.

UArizona College of Nursing researchers Jessica Rainbow, PhD, RN, and Claire Bethel, PhD, RN, have been studying nurse well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shad Marvasti, MD, MPH, associate professor and director of public health, prevention and population health curriculum at the College of Medicine – Phoenix, considers the COVID-19 response a near miracle. “I don’t think we have ever had a vaccine examined to such level of detail by so many scientists around the world to really prioritize this above any research endeavor,” he said.

An inflammatory protein may play a part against the spread of sexually transmitted genital herpes virus in the nervous system, a new study says.

An experimental vaccine that could protect millions of people living in the American Southwest from valley fever has passed its first test of efficacy and is moving toward federal approval, possibly within two years. The vaccine candidate, was developed by the Valley Fever Center for Excellence at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, was tested in, and will be developed for, dogs.

A University of Arizona Health Sciences-led study uncovered disparities in breast cancer treatments that may lead to poorer health outcomes in Indigenous women, who currently have the worst breast cancer survival outcomes of any racial group in the U.S.

Researchers at the University of Arizona Health Sciences are closer to developing a safe and effective non-opioid pain reliever after a study showed that a new compound they created reduces the sensation of pain by regulating a biological channel linked to pain.