Health Sciences In The Media

Dr. Shad Marvasti, Director of Public Health at the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix says Labor Day weekend did not lead to a big case spike and numbers appear to show safety protocols and restrictions are working.

“Arizona has been hit particularly hard for adults,” said Joe Gerald, an associate professor at the University of Arizona’s College of Public Health who creates COVID-19 forecast models. “It’s not surprising that children have also been hit hard.” That higher infection rate, combined with the state’s relatively young population, means more young people are getting the virus, Gerald said. About a quarter of Arizonans are 19 or younger – about 59% of them Hispanic.

Researchers at the University of Arizona are preparing to make history. Dr. Meredith Hay is leading a team at the UA College of Medicine preparing the first potential drug to treat vascular dementia the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's.

With a number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized with respiratory problems and dying from heart failure, it became obvious early on that SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus behind the pandemic, also can damage the heart. "We don't do MRIs on everyone who has the flu, so we don't know how many have inflammation or what their long-term outcomes are," said Dr. Martha Gulati, the division chief of cardiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.

Rajesh Khanna, a professor of anesthesiology and pharmacology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, writes that his research group uncovered a link between a particular cellular protein and pain – an interaction that is disrupted by the coronavirus.

An article looks into the challenges of widely distributing a COVID-19 vaccine in Arizona. "The FDA has promised that it is not going to approve a vaccine until it has found to be safe," said Dr. Elizabeth Connick, chief of infectious diseases at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson.

Continuing coverage: Molecular clock analysis showed no widespread community distribution of the highly contagious coronavirus disease in Arizona until mid-February.

Continuing coverage: Colleges and universities across the U.S. are looking into using wastewater-based epidemiology to track the spread of COVID-19. Wastewater samples from the Likins dorm on the University of Arizona campus came back positive for COVID-19, according to University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins. Ian Pepper, director of the WEST Center and a BIO5 Institute member, is leading a study that uses municipal wastewater to monitor the incidence of the virus in communities across the United States.

Continuing coverage: Investigators have determined that treating patients with an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration with levodopa, a safe and readily available drug commonly used to treat Parkinson's disease, stabilized and improved their vision. It reduced the number of treatments necessary to maintain vision, and as such, will potentially reduce the burden of treating the disease, financially and otherwise. Dr. Robert W. Snyder, head of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of the Arizona, is the study's lead investigator.

Just over two in five Arizona adults got a flu shot last year, a number state officials are desperate to improve on before the onset of both influenza and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic this fall. "It's difficult to tell what the response will be each year" to the call for people to get vaccinated, said Dr. Daniel Derksen, director of the University of Arizona Center for Rural Health. "You want to protect those vulnerable populations."