Health Sciences In The Media

After finishing his degree at the University of Arizona as a doctor in pharmacy, Jeffrey Asman, 56, said the decision to go back to school in his “second half of life” was an easy one. “I was 48 or 49 wondering if my old college credits were any good. It is cliché to say but really true that it is never too late.”

Contact tracing is an indispensable part of breaking the chain of a pathogen's transmission and getting society back on track, according to most health officials including those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This process can seem intrusive, but public health agencies have honed it over decades. “We get people to tell us who their public contacts are when they have syphilis,” said Kristen Pogreba-Brown, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. “We know how to do this.”

The University of Arizona is planning to resume in-person classes for the fall semester.

An effort by students from the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson to provide coronavirus information to a Spanish-speaking community gained financial backing from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The University of Arizona and state of Arizona antibody testing initiative will include 31 sites across the state as it expands to all 15 counties.

University President Robert C. Robbins is interviewed about the school's reopening plan consisted of testing, tracing and treating. At the heart of the school's reopening project is its research laboratories where scientists have created and are processing their own diagnostic and antibody tests.

Ayeisha Marie Rosa Hernandez, a student in the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health helps educate Latinos about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The majority of Arizona’s COVID-19 cases are in its two most urban counties: Maricopa and Pima. However, some of the state’s more rural counties have also been hit hard. To find out more about how things are playing out here in Arizona, The Show spoke with Dan Derksen, the associate vice president for health equity, outreach and interprofessional activities at University of Arizona Health Sciences.

The Navajo Nation has more per-capita COVID-19 infections than any place outside of New York and New Jersey. In April, its rate of infection was 10 times higher than that of Arizona, which encircles most of the Nation. “If you're having to haul water from a well many miles down a dirt road, and bring it back to water the animals, and also use it for washing and cooking and things like that, it’s really hard to wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds,” said Daniel Derksen, director of the University of Arizona’s Center for Rural Health.

Alumna Savannah Guthrie interviews University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins about the university's plan to bring students, faculty and staff back to campus in the fall.