Aphasia – a difficulty in producing or understanding words and language, both written and spoken – often results following a stroke that damages parts of the brain that produce and decode language. "When patients who have experienced a left-brain stroke suddenly find out they can no longer speak, or speak only haltingly, it's a dramatic situation," said Steven Z. Rapcsak, MD, a professor of neurology in the College of Medicine – Tucson. "In many cases, they have the thoughts and know what they're trying to express, but they just don't have the words."

Statistics from a 2019 report by the UArizona Center for Rural Health are cited in an opinion column about the health care worker shortage in northern Arizona.

In a presentation at the annual American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology meeting, Tara Carr, MD, an associate professor in the College of Medicine – Tucson, presented results of a post hoc analysis that assessed the efficacy of tezepelumab in a broad population of patients with severe, uncontrolled asthma and common respiratory comorbidities.

President Biden, looking to usher the nation out of the coronavirus crisis into what some are calling a “new normal,” used his State of the Union address Tuesday night to sketch out the next phase of his pandemic response. Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson, is quoted.

More of Pima County’s children and teens will be ditching masks in school following recent changes in county and federal guidelines. Joe Gerald, MD, PhD, associate professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, is quoted.

The district will still apply certain masking and quarantine mandates for those who test positive for COVID-19 or for those who come in direct contact with an infected person. Other county school districts are still deciding what to do. Joe Gerald, MD, PhD, associate professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, is quoted.

Five months after immunization, two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine appeared to offer virtually no defense against moderate illness caused by the omicron variant — as measured by visits to emergency departments and urgent care clinics — among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, according to data published by the CDC. Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, professor of immunobiology at the College of Medicine – Tucson, is quoted.

It’s called the Aegis Consortium and the goal is to partner with experts across disciplines to create a pandemic-free future. One area of research will look at how where we live can be adapted or modified with technology. Mindy Fain, MD, co-director of the UArizona Center on Aging and professor of medicine in the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson, is quoted. The Health Sciences Office of Communications assisted with this story.