Health Sciences In The Media

Donna D. Zhang, of University of Arizona Health Sciences, has received an eight-year, $7.3 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to determine how a family of proteins can be harnessed to prevent or treat arsenic-induced lung cancer and Type 2 diabetes.

Even many public health experts who celebrated President-elect Joe Biden's win this week turned their immediate focus to the crisis it might create: A 10-week transition period during which COVID-19 cases and deaths skyrocket, and the outgoing Trump administration doesn't take additional action to stop the surge. "So many of us are worried that now that Biden has won, the Trump administration is going to take a scorched-earth approach," said Saskia Popescu, a University of Arizona epidemiology professor at the University of Arizona and biodefense expert.

Last week, the Arizona Department of Health Services announced it had updated its guidance on when schools should transition to virtual learning. The agency recommended the move be made if a county's COVID-19 benchmarks are in the red. But one of those indicators could be flawed. Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist at the University of Arizona's Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, is interviewed.

Children infected with the coronavirus produce weaker antibodies and fewer types of them than adults do, suggesting they clear their infection much faster, according to a new study. "Having a ton of antibody isn't necessarily a marker of a good thing," said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona. "It usually means that something went wrong early in the response."

As COVID-19 cases continue to surge across Arizona with 39 more deaths reported Wednesday morning, University of Arizona College of Medicine (Phoenix) Public Health Director and physician Dr. Shad Marvasti says school officials need to think about the impact the virus could have on schools as we the holiday and influenza season, suggesting they may need to go completely virtual.

Despite the incident at city hall in New Haven, Connecticut, the risk of contracting the coronavirus while voting in person is about the same as when ordering takeout, one epidemiologist previously told Business Insider. "There are so many safety protocols put into place for safe voting that it is really a lower-risk activity," Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist and leading expert on coronavirus transmission at the University of Arizona told Business Insider.

The University of Arizona is reporting elevated COVID-19 cases reflective of a state-wide uptick after large gatherings occurred over the Halloween weekend, reported UA President Robert C. Robbins and campus reentry task force head Dr. Richard Carmona in a news conference Monday, Nov. 2.

Rapid tests may not be sensitive enough to detect asymptomatic people with low levels of infection, according to a new study from the University of Arizona led by Dr. David Harris. In symptomatic people, a rapid test could detect 80% of coronavirus infections found by a slower, lab-based P.C.R. test. But when the rapid test was used instead to randomly screen students and staff members who did not feel sick, it detected only 32% of positive cases.

The influenza virus that causes the flu tends to live longest on hard surfaces, says Kelly Reynolds, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona's Zuckerman College of Public Health. "Flu viruses survive for 24 to 48 hours on stainless steel and plastic," Reynolds says.

The University of Arizona Health Sciences is developing a lung ultrasound education program for rural emergency medicine providers to better diagnose COVID-19. Lung ultrasound can be particularly useful in rural emergency departments (EDs), as many lack CT scan capabilities or have limited access to COVID-19 testing. With the disparate impact of COVID-19 on rural populations in Arizona, it is important to expand use of the imaging tool across the state.