Walmart awards $20,000 to UArizona Sarver Heart Center Minority Outreach Program/Community Coalition for Heart Health Education on National Day of Giving.

Late spring and summer in Arizona bring blood-hungry kissing bugs and their bites, but doctors say there is no reason for alarm.

Scientists have found Pima County’s first case of the Delta variant, a new, highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. “At this point I’m still not alarmed that the Delta variant is going to have a major impact here in Arizona,” said Dr. Joe Gerald, an associate professor and director of the public health policy and management program at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

Although the pandemic has led to more frequent and intensive cleaning procedures in many airports, certain germs are seemingly unavoidable in that environment. As a general rule, try to avoid crowded areas in airports to protect your health. “Germs are spread via contact with others and contaminated surfaces. The best defense is to avoid close contact with people, particularly if they exhibit illness symptoms," said Kelly Reynolds, a professor of environmental health sciences at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death globally, according to recent statistics, putting the spotlight on prevention and eliminating race and sex disparities. “Almost no U.S. racial or ethnic group achieves ideal nutrition in youth. Additional interventions are needed to change the trajectory for both adult and youth populations," said Dr. Khadijah Breathett, an assistant professor at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

With COVID-19 vaccination rates declining in Arizona and other states, public and private entities are using incentives to reverse the trend and get more shots into more arms. “Unfortunately vaccines, like masks, have been politicized. People have been fed a great deal of misinformation, which has really confused the general public about the science and the safety involved," said Dr. Shad Marvasti, an associate professor and director of public health, prevention and population health curriculum at the College of Medicine – Phoenix.

A College of Medicine – Tucson assistant professor of pediatrics answers questions about COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and the risk of side effects in children.

The Medical Scientist Training Program is designed to train students planning careers in academic medicine or biomedical research.

Researchers at the University of Arizona Cancer Center's Skin Cancer Institute are spending countless hours researching new medicines to battle melanoma. “Ultimately the things I’m doing are experimental. I'm the guy who tries to come up with novel weapons on a molecular basis,” said Georg Wondrak, a professor at the College of Pharmacy and a research member at the UArizona Cancer Center.

The College of Medicine – Tucson is offering a new Bachelor of Science in Medicine degree. "My overall hope is that we provide something that students really, really like. We want to give something that will be another option for students to say 'hey I want to try some of this or look at it.' I hope that it helps with student's decisions as far as career," said Todd Vanderah, PhD, head of the Department of Pharmacology.