Health Sciences In The Media

Dr. Ricardo Correa, program director, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Fellowship at the College of Medicine ⁠– Phoenix, and volunteers with the Phoenix Allies for Community Health Clinic take vaccines door to door in search of people to immunize. They have vaccinated nearly 500 people so far, but are disappointed by the hit-and-miss process. “The reception has been like 50% or 60%,” Dr. Correa said.

Legislation signed earlier this month by Gov. Doug Ducey covers a wide swath of issues aimed at making telehealth in Arizona a viable option for care. The new legislation makes Arizona one of only a handful of states to tackle the interstate issue, according to Nancy Rowe, who retired this week from her role as associate director for public policy and outreach at the University of Arizona Telemedicine Program.

Water storage tanks are one one of the most vulnerable points in a public water supply. There are millions of cases of gastrointestinal or respiratory illness that no one suspected came from their drinking water. “It’s an endemic level of illness that we just sort of live with. We have to decide, is it an acceptable risk?," said Dr. Kelly Reynolds, a professor and chair of the community, environment and policy department at the Mel and Enid College of Public Health.

Population health researchers say that they still expect the national death rate to return to more normal-looking levels as Covid-19 deaths recede. But that doesn’t mean the pandemic’s impact will disappear. “What the challenge will be is being able to quantify those lingering effects. They won’t be as dramatic, but that doesn’t make them any less real,” said Dr. Heidi Brown, an associate professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

Jeffery Hanna, a clinical research coordinator at the College of Medicine – Phoenix, is a recipient of the Arizona Family’s Pay It Forward award. Hanna has spent the last year doing nasal swab and saliva testing, and helped organize many pop-up vaccine clinics.

The University of Arizona has seen a 26% increase overall for all its epidemiology applications compared to this time last year and it's still accepting new applicants. Interest in the MPH Applied Epidemiology program has nearly tripled. "I think it would be right to say that COVID-19 has really brought public health to the forefront of our lives," said Dr. John Ehiri, a professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. This story was picked up by 26 Fox affiliate television stations across the U.S., including Atlanta, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.

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.

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.