Health Sciences In The Media

Pima County has 65.3% of its population partially vaccinated and only 55% fully vaccinated. That’s one of the best in the state but is still far from what’s needed. Joe Gerald, MD, PhD, an associate professor of public health policy and management at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, has been the go to numbers guy since the beginning of the pandemic 18 months ago. “I think it’s almost certain that we will be living with Covid-19 in some form or another for years to come,” he said. “Maybe forever in all likelihood.”

Out of all the states in the U.S. that are endemic to Valley fever, Arizona is best equipped to handle the rise in cases of Coccidioides, cocci for short. The Valley Fever Center for Excellence, housed within the University of Arizona, helps facilitate collaboration between doctors and researchers across multiple counties within Arizona and develops strategies for diagnosing and treating Valley fever.

The Arizona's Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center has had 19 reports related to ivermectin so far this year, including eight who were hospitalized, said Steven Dudley, PharmD, DABAT, director of the UArizona Poison and Drug Information Center, in an email. "People tend to be using ivermectin in doses much higher than what it has been approved for," Dudley wrote in an email. "Another point is ivermectin can interact with other medications and make your potential for toxicity worse than someone else's."

As interest grows around COVID-19 booster shots, there is still a lot of uncertainty around getting a third dose. People with weakened immune systems can already get a booster, but the benefit to everyone else is unclear. Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, a professor of immunobiology at the College of Medicine – Tucson, said that it's clear a booster could be beneficial. A booster, he said, might reduce the chance that a person would get infected and develop symptoms. What's less clear is how much a national booster strategy would help control the spread of the coronavirus. "It just doesn't seem like vaccinated breakthrough infections are the major source of transmission," he said.

The complexity of the body’s immune system makes the impact of a booster shot difficult to assess. Antibody levels from any vaccine or natural infection will decline over time, says Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, an immunologist at the College of Medicine – Tucson. Yet “the ones that are left tend to be of higher quality, so it takes far fewer of them to protect against disease,” Bhattacharya says, adding that it is difficult to tell exactly how much additional protection a booster shot would provide. This article was originally published in The Wall Street Journal.

Andrew Weil, MD, founder and director of the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, discusses his early life and career in integrative medicine.

One of the most common reasons Americans cite for not getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is that they're naturally protected by their past infection. Relying on previous infection alone as a means of protecting against COVID-19 is especially risky as coronavirus variants continue to emerge, according to Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, an immunology professor at the College of Medicine – Tucson. "Antibody levels are really variable after recovering from infections, and those at the lower end of the spectrum might be more susceptible to reinfections. But after a single vaccine in people who have recovered from COVID-19, antibodies skyrocket up, including those that neutralize variants of concern," he said.

Toilet paper-shaped clothes have been used in lieu of toilet paper in the loo, then kept in a hamper or bag after use to be cleaned for later. The clothes are an eco-friendly alternative to the disposable toilet tissue paper. And this practice, that apparently gained attention on several blogs for years, is now a whole industry on online shop etsy.com. "This is just a risky practice overall, said Kelly Reynolds, PhD, MSPH, professor and chair of the community, environment and policy department at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. "The potential for cross contamination is very high from your bathroom, where they are stored, to your laundry room."

Roberta Brinton, PhD, director of the Center for Innovation in Brain Science, received a $15.1 million grant from the National Institutes on Aging to investigate perimenopausal brain aging.

Joe Gerald, MD, PhD, an associate professor of public health policy at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and team leader for the UArizona COVID-19 modeling group joined The Show to talk more about Biden's vaccine mandate and the virus’ track in Arizona.