A new mobile health unit initiative is getting more vaccines in the arms of rural, Hispanic and other hard-to-reach populations in southern Arizona.

Next-generation education at the Colleges of Nursing and Pharmacy aims to fill care gaps as the U.S. physician shortage worsens.

Because of two concerning mutations, the B.1.617 variant discovered in India has been given a scary nickname “double mutant,” an incorrect term that is “completely unhelpful,” said Dr. Deepta Bhattacharya, an associate professor of immunobiology at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

A new study found that vaccination rates in rural America lagged urban counties during the first four months of the nation's concerted immunization push. "The counties that have lower uptake in the vaccines are also the ones who have been disproportionately hit by all those negative outcomes related to the COVID-19 pandemic," said Dr. Daniel Derksen, director of the Center for Rural Health.

Tamoxifen and steroidal aromatase inhibitor use among women with breast cancer was associated with a significantly lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease, a retrospective cohort study showed. “Our lab has helped to develop a link between the decrease in estrogen status seen in women during menopause to the increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease in women overall in this age group,” said Gregory L. Branigan, an MD‐PhD at the UArizona Center for Innovation in Brain Science.

Dr. John Galgiani, a professor and director of the Valley Fever Center for Excellence at the College of Medicine – Tucson, and a group of researchers are working on a new valley fever vaccine formula for dogs that uses a live version of the fungus. Testing is not complete, but it could reach the market for use in dogs as early as next year.

The University of Arizona is participating in a nationwide COVID-19 post-vaccination study to help determine whether or not vaccinated individuals who are exposed to COVID-19 are still able to transmit the virus to others. Dr. Lori Fantry, a professor and associate clinical director of the College of Medicine’s Infectious Diseases Division, says the school hopes to enroll at least 100 students in the coming weeks.

Dr. Shad Marvasti, an associate professor of Family, Community and Preventive Medicine at the College of Medicine – Phoenix, expects a growing body of knowledge about the vaccines over the next six months. “At this point what we know from vaccine immunity is that it lasts at least six months, and studies are underway now looking beyond the six months time frame, to see whether or not there is still immunity."

"We're at the beginning of the end," said Dr. Joe Gerald, an associate professor of public health policy and management in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. Dr. Leila Barraza, an associate professor at the College of Public Health, added, "There's still individuals out there that are vulnerable to COVID-19, and we still need to be considerate of that."