Facing a slowing rate of Arizonans getting vaccinated, Gov. Doug Ducey last Thursday tapped former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, to be his new senior health advisor on COVID matters. Dr. Carmona currently is a professor of public health at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and most recently served as the director of the University of Arizona COVID Response Team.

Uncertainty remains over whether the vaccine or negative-test requirements actually make large concerts safe even if held outdoors. It turned out that Lollapalooza was not a superspreader event, at least according to Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, who reported only 203 attendees were diagnosed with COVID. Saskia Popescu, PhD, MPH, MA, an infectious disease epidemiologist and adjunct professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health sees the Lollapalooza data as "a really good sign,” but says an outdoor concert is not without risk, especially in places where the delta variant has thrived.

Experts will discuss chronic pain prevention through physical therapy, nutrition, pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments. Free.

UArizona Health Sciences expert Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, discusses the evolving battle against COVID-19 and what people can do to stay healthy.

Facing a slowing rate of Arizonans getting vaccinated, Gov. Doug Ducey on Thursday tapped former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, to be his new senior health advisor on COVID matters. Dr. Carmona currently is a professor of public health at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and most recently served as the director of the University of Arizona COVID Response Team.

It is possible, but extremely rare, to contract COVID and Valley Fever at the same time. If you’ve had Valley Fever, you’re not more susceptible to COVID. It’s a popular belief that you won’t get Valley Fever after living here for a few years. The median diagnosis time for residents is actually 12 years, and the fungus can lie dormant in your body. It is not contagious, and there’s no real way to prevent it, but you can help by avoiding dust. The Valley Fever Center for Excellence at the University of Arizona has a wealth of information about the disease on its website.

A landmark study, conducted by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, found youth tobacco and prescription drug use rose while alcohol use declined during the pandemic. Cody Welty, a doctoral student and mental health researcher in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, emphasizes the pressure the pandemic continues to place on kids. “Ask them how their day was and really wait and listen to hear the answer. It’s hard. Online school is hard and going back to school is hard right now,” he said.

Ivosidenib tablets have been granted FDA approval for the treatment of adult patients with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive cancer affecting the bile ducts both in and outside of the liver. “Patients living with IDH1-mutated cholangiocarcinoma, especially those whose disease progresses following chemotherapy, are in urgent need of new treatment options,” Rachna T. Shroff, MD, associate professor of medicine at the College of Medicine – Tucson and chief of GI medical oncology at the UArizona Cancer Center.

Recent changes to U.S. donor heart allocation were followed by a narrowing of racial disparities in listing and transplant, though much more work remains to eliminate inequality, researchers warned. The article cites an editorial co-authored by Khadijah Breathett, MD, MS, a cardiologist and assistant professor in the College of Medicine – Tucson and Sarver Heart Center researcher, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Victoria Maizes, MD, executive director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, shares insights on the health benefits provided by fermented foods.