Feature Channels: Public Health

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The diagnostic is a comprehensive test which will also complement diagnostics for common secondary infections

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In a new study of patients with severe COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) hospitalized on ventilators, researchers found that lying face down was better for the lungs. The research letter was published online in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

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Physician-scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) are now enrolling patients in two clinical trials testing treatment options for COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. Two trials, led by infectious disease specialist Kathryn Stephenson, MD, MPH, will test the antiviral drug remdesivir for safety and efficacy against the respiratory infection that has sickened more than 300,000 and killed more than 15,000 around the world to date.

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Researchers at four University of California Health medical centers have begun recruiting participants for a Phase II clinical trial to investigate the safety and efficacy of treating adult patients with COVID-19 with remdesivir, a drug that has shown promising activity against multiple viruses.

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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists are contributing to the global fight against COVID-19 by combining artificial intelligence/machine learning, bioinformatics and supercomputing to help discover candidates for new antibodies and pharmaceutical drugs to combat the disease.

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Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director of the NIH, flew to Birmingham on Thursday, March 5, to start a long-anticipated visit to UAB. Collins soon learned he had a problem back home. Maryland public health officials were reporting the first two cases of COVID-19 in the county where the NIH sits.

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Researchers looked at whether taking more steps and higher intensity stepping were associated with reduced risk of death in this observational study that included almost 4,900 adults (40 and over) who wore a device called an accelerometer to measure their step count and step intensity (steps/minute).

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The first study looking at the effect of chlorhexidine mouthwash on the entire oral microbiome has found its use significantly increases the abundance of lactate-producing bacteria that lower saliva pH, and may increase the risk of tooth damage.

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With over 300,000 COVID-19 cases across the globe, including recent cases in Syria and the Gaza Strip, the data continues to demonstrate how the disease has no borders.

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The American Psychological Association called on states and insurers to move quickly to allow people to connect with their mental health providers remotely using telehealth as the need for mental health services rises during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Expert Panel scheduled for Monday March 23 at 2 PM EDT, Media Invited to Attend and Ask Questions

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Public health crises such as COVID-19 — in which people may feel powerless and receive conflicting information — can lead to a flare-up of unsafe religious sentiments, says Baylor University epidemiologist Jeff Levin, Ph.D., who cites past persecution of religious and ethnic minorities who were blamed unfairly for spreading disease.

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University of Washington researchers have launched the King County COVID-19 Community Study — or KC3S — to gather data through April 19 on how individuals and communities throughout King County are coping with the measures put in place to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

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In the first week since COVID-19 was designated a pandemic, requests for food pantries skyrocketed across the United States. Requests for home-delivered meals more than tripled in the same time period, said a Brown School researcher who tracks calls to 2-1-1 help lines across the U.S.Matthew Kreuter, the Kahn Family Professor of Public Health at Washington University in St.

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We must consider this coronavirus crisis as a wake-up call to prioritize equity and challenge ourselves to consider how to better serve historically underserved communities, says a public health expert at Washington University in St. Louis.“In the middle of a pandemic, it is easy to overlook health equity,” said Darrell Hudson, associate professor at the Brown School.

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As the St. Louis region and the state of Missouri confront the coronavirus challenge, it has posed a number of serious issues for health policy analysts and health economists.“This is the most unprecedented challenge to the health system I have seen in my career,” said Tim McBride, the Bernard Becker Professor at Washington University in St.

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Following Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's “stay home, stay safe” executive order Monday, Michigan Medicine doctor shares his top three messages with the community.

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What’s novel about COVID-19 isn’t just the coronavirus. It’s the sheer scale and depth of The Big Human Pivot that this tiny infectious particle has triggered. In unprecedented times, what can you do to lead mindfully through it? In this series, Lili Powell introduces a Leading Mindfully strategy: “see it, name it, tame it and reclaim it.”

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COVID-19 has sent us into a grand and growing telework experience. How do organizations, employees and leaders function in a world in which operations must continue but face-to-face may be impossible? Included: alternatives to in-person communication and physical contact, developing relationships virtually, and managing yourself and productivity.

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Dr. Krystal Simmons, clinical associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, studies school psychology and counseling. We spoke with her for advice on how to speak with your children during a public crisis such as COVID-19.

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According to the CDC, based on the preliminary report on outcomes for patients in the U.S., when examining the age range of cases, the largest group with confirmed cases was ages 20-44 years old (29%). Among those hospitalized, adults ages 65-84 years old comprised over a third of patients, but young people were not immune; 1 in 5 of those needing hospitalization were between the ages of 20 and 44 years old. The CDC also reports that in cases with known outcomes, 20% of the deaths occurred in those ages 20-64 years old.

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The following are various story ideas regarding the COVID-19 illness. To interview Johns Hopkins experts on these topics or others, contact [email protected].

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The race is on to improvise ventilators, face shields, respirators, surgical gowns, and other health care gear to help the hundreds of thousands of people expected to swamp hospitals with waves of critical COVID-19 illness. Using 3D-printed parts, plastic-lined tablecloths, laser-cut gears and similar substitutions, a research team from the Georgia Institute of Technology is racing to develop “do-it-yourself” health care gear that can be assembled where it’s needed from components available locally.

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In support of World TB Day, 24 March, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), of which the American Thoracic Society is a founding member, urges governments to promote tuberculosis prevention as a critical component of TB elimination.

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Up until recently, COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) may have been a relatively new phenomena to the general public, but Wichita State University medical chemist Bill Groutas, two virologists from Kansas State University, and a physician/virologist from the University of Iowa have been working on a cure for coronaviruses for more than three years.

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Anesthesia professionals – who are in close contact as they help patients breathe through airway equipment – are at increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 and should wear N95 masks or similarly protective equipment in all diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical procedures, according to an updated statement from The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF), the American Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants (AAAA) and the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA).

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Inside the molecular diagnostics laboratory at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore two biologists from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) are working alongside them. Peter Thielen and Tom Mehoke, members of APL’s Research and Exploratory Development Department, are waiting for the positive tests. Certainly, positive tests are no cause for celebration; but for Thielen and Mehoke, they are an invaluable sample — and a key to learning more about the rapidly spreading virus.

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While healthcare and government leaders around the world are focused on “flattening the curve” of the spread of COVID-19, an emerging concurrent rallying cry to “raise the line” of healthcare service capacity is being showcased in a new educational video recently released and set for international distribution. LifeBridge Health, an academic community health system in Baltimore, MD, and Osmosis, an international medical education video platform, released the collaborative video aimed at educating both medical practitioners and the general public on the importance and practical ways to flatten the curve and raise the line of capacity.



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Key factors must be taken into account in determining the need for and allocation of scarce ventilators during a severe pandemic, especially one causing respiratory illness.

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By: Mark Blackwell Thomas | Published: March 23, 2020 | 2:43 pm | SHARE: The coronavirus pandemic has left the state of Florida’s disease experts facing an event with no modern precedent. Officials working to track the spread of COVID-19 are stretched thin and faced with the inevitable prospect of more diagnoses, prompting them to reach out to public health experts and students at Florida’s universities for help.

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A method of predicting the coronavirus spread – pioneered and developed by Weizmann Institute scientists – may enable authorities to focus efforts on areas where an outbreak is anticipated and relieve measures taken in others. Several countries, including the U.S., are adopting the new method

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An expert team of researchers and clinicians have been working together to design, validate, and implement an “end-to-end” clinical pathology laboratory solution that will allow for the testing of approximately several hundred people per day in order to rapidly diagnose and help guide the selection of treatment and monitor disease course.

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James Diaz, MD, MHA, MPH & TM, Dr PH, Professor and Head of Environmental Health Sciences at LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health, has proposed a possible explanation for the severe lung complications being seen in some people diagnosed with COVID-19.

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How do you know if the nasal congestion and sneezing you’re experiencing is spring allergies or COVID-19?

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Certain areas of the country are experiencing shortages of albuterol inhalers. There are options for asthma sufferers who can't get an inhaler.

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Irvine, Calif., March 23, 2020 – While government officials and news organizations work to communicate critical risk assessments and recommendations to the public during a health crisis such as the new coronavirus pandemic, a related threat may be emerging, according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine: psychological distress resulting from repeated media exposure to the crisis.

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Worry, stress and anxiety that naturally come with a global pandemic can lead to stress eating and cravings.