Health Sciences In The Media

Dr. Onyemaechi Okolo recently illustrated how bias can play out in a short “one-woman show,” which she performed for a virtual audience tuning into ASCO Voices, the storytelling educational session at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting. Okolo has a dual fellowship in hematology-oncology – where she is chief fellow at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson.

Dr. Daniel Derksen, director of the University of Arizona Center for Rural Health, is interviewed about the health disparities experienced by people living in rural areas.

According to one of the new studies, which has yet to be peer-reviewed and was posted on MedRxiv over the weekend, researchers at the University of Arizona conclude that "immunity is durable for at least several months after SARS-CoV-2 infection." Deepta Bhattacharya, associate professor of immunobiology at the College of Medicine – Tucson said that he and his colleagues came to their conclusion after they measured antibodies and examined how long they were being produced in COVID-19 patients.

Disease-fighting antibodies, as well as immune cells called B cells and T cells that are capable of recognizing the virus, appear to persist months after infections have resolved – an encouraging echo of the body's enduring response to other viruses. “Things are really working as they're supposed to,” said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson.

The number of weekly COVID-19 deaths in Arizona recently hit a high-water mark. It’s one of the latest and most concrete signs that the pandemic is getting better statewide, although the virus still presents a significant risk. “For the first time I’m confident that we’ve had a peak in deaths,” said Joe Gerald, an associate professor with the University of Arizona’s Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. “Things are getting markedly better. That's awesome.”

Dr. Murtaza Akhter, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and an emergency room physician, answers questions from viewers about coronavirus.

The pandemic has also made it more difficult and scarier for some individuals to receive treatment for their substance use disorder from both treatment clinics or emergency departments, says Todd Vanderah, head of the Department of Pharmacology in the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson.

Rather than see productivity plummet with undergraduates out of the lab, Michael Johnson, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson, and other researchers have pivoted to focus on renewing their existing grants, analyzing neglected data, and writing up results for publication. "There's still a lot of work that can be done remotely that is valuable and contributory to the field," Johnson said.

Amanda Wilson, an environmental health sciences doctoral candidate in the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, is lead author of a recent study published in the Journal of Hospital Infection that assessed the ability of a variety of nontraditional mask materials to protect a person from infection after 30 seconds and after 20 minutes of exposure in a highly contaminated environment.

CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta interviews Dr. Richard Carmona, the 17th U.S. Surgeon General and head of the University of Arizona's Reentry Task Force, about the process of reopening a college campus amid the COVID-19 pandemic.