Health Sciences In The Media

The University of Arizona had its first day of in-person classes Monday as people on and off-campus worry that a rise in cases will inevitably follow students' return to Tucson. "We feel that we've done a very good job about creating an environment that's receptive to our students, staff and faculty returning in the increments we have explained. But they've got to adhere to those public health practices,” said Dr. Richard Carmona, head of the Campus Reentry Task Force and distinguished professor of public health.

Following a dramatic surge of coronavirus cases between June and July, numbers across the United States have largely decreased, which experts attribute to local mask mandates and other precautionary measures, like restaurant and bar closures. Joe Gerald, an associate professor of public health policy at the University of Arizona, attributed the decrease to mask orders in the state's biggest cities, news media coverage of the heightened risk and also the closure of bars, gyms and theaters after they started reopening in May.

"A thermometer that is cost-effective, reliable and easily cleaned between uses makes a thermometer good for families," said Dr. Farshad Fani Marvasti, director of the public health curriculum for the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.

Arizona's COVID-19 reproduction number – a measure of whether a disease is spreading or contracting, also called R0 – is the lowest in the nation, by one count, just eight weeks after the state was in headlines as a coronavirus hot spot. But University of Arizona epidemiologist Purnima Madhivanan from the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, urged caution at the R0 news.

The University of Arizona College of Nursing is among the beneficiaries of a $1.5 million gift from UA alumni Andrew and Kirsten Braccia. The vast majority of the gift, $1 million, will support next-generation education for nursing students, enhancing simulation capabilities, providing students online access to virtual patient experiences, and supporting and augmenting technology needed for distance learning due to COVID-19.

Arizona has seen a 20% increase in deaths in the first seven months of this year – and not all of them have been directly linked to the coronavirus. Other states have seen a similar increase in deaths since the pandemic began, said Zhao Chen, a chronic disease epidemiologist and professor at the University of Arizona's Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. Chen said Arizona's growing population could explain part of the increase in overall deaths, though she doubts growth is the only factor.

Leslie V. Farland, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, has been awarded federal funding to study the association among endometriosis infertility and risk of stroke.

Deadly overdoses from all drugs have been on an upward trajectory in Pima County since March, the same month when the pandemic entered the forefront. The timing likely isn’t a coincidence, as Arizona 360 heard from Todd Vanderahan, head of the University of Arizona Department of Pharmacology at the College of Medicine - Tucson and serves as director for the UA’s new Comprehensive Pain and Addiction Center.

As patients avoided hospitals and doctors' offices, conditions such as cancer and heart disease went untreated. Health care providers now stress the importance of non-COVID-19 care as the pandemic stretches on. "We certainly know we didn’t cure heart disease overnight," said Dr. Martha Gulati, division chief of cardiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and editor-in-chief of CardioSmart.org, an online resource produced by the American College of Cardiology.

Three new faculty cardiologists, Drs. Arka Chatterjee, Talal Moukabary and Madhan Sundaram, bring significant expertise in interventional cardiology and electrophysiology to the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center and Banner – University Medicine Tucson.