Health Sciences In The Media

Despite all of the suspicion of vaccines, treatments and government proclamations about the disease, many physicians say in the two years since the pandemic began, science has performed admirably and accomplished remarkable work through the pandemic. Janko Nikolich-Zugich, MD, PhD, professor and head of the Department of Immunobiology at the College of Medicine – Tucson, is quoted.

Shad Marvasti, MD, associate professor of family and community medicine at the College of Medicine – Phoenix, says diet links directly to some of the major diseases of our time like cancer, diabetes, low blood sugar, and heart disease.

The University of Arizona Health Sciences has been awarded a $2.1 million grant by the National Institutes of Health to fund a three-year study examining the link between normal knee aging and osteoarthritis. C. Kent Kwoh, MD, director of the UArizona Arthritis Center and chief of the Division of Rheumatology in the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson, will lead the study.

A team of researchers say they better understand why some people with COVID-19 also experience dizziness, ringing in the ears or other hearing issues. At the College of Medicine – Tucson, Shaowen Bao, PhD, an assistant professor of physiology, is currently working on a research survey of people who reported tinnitus after receiving the vaccine. He hopes to publish his findings in a scientific journal later this year.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.