Feature Channels: Public Health

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The cyanobacteria blooms that plague western Lake Erie each summer are both an unsightly nuisance and a potential public health hazard, producing liver toxins that can be harmful to humans and their pets.

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A research team led by Carol Miller, professor of Civil and Environmental engineering at Wayne State, recently received an $80,000 grant from the National Science Foundation focused on "fatbergs." The team will utilize real-time video, pressure data and advanced chemical analysis to advance the understanding of the physical and chemical structure of massive buildups of fats, oils and greases (FOGs, also referred to as "fatbergs") that cause blockages in sewer systems. Results will be used to identify potential risks associated with blockages and inform future targeted prevention and mitigation efforts.

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A practical resource-based public health approach for the rapid initiation of antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected individuals living in low- and middle-income countries could save thousands of lives, according to an Essay published January 15 in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Mark Tenforde of the University of Washington School of Medicine, and colleagues.

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While more than 32 million individuals in the U.S. have a documented penicillin allergy in their medical record, studies have shown that more 95 percent actually can be treated safely with this class of antibiotics, improving treatment outcomes and reducing the risk of infection with dangerous resistant pathogens such as Clostridium difficile (C. difficile). A review article in the January 15 issue of JAMA recommends best practices for evaluation of reported penicillin allergies and provides clinicians with guidance and tools to help determine appropriate procedures based on the severity of previously reported reactions.

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Global surgery is often referred to as the neglected stepchild of global health, but Gregory Peck, DO, assistant professor of surgery at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, is trying to change that through a global surgery fellowship program that unites surgeons and non-surgeons in health systems based research and development.

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Despite the mounting death toll of America’s opioid crisis, only a minority of facilities that treat substance use disorders offer patients buprenorphine, naltrexone or methadone—the three FDA-approved medications for the long-term management of opioid use disorder, according to a new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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For the first time, researchers at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences have successfully used the gene-editing tool CRISPR/Cas9 to limit the impact of parasitic worms responsible for schistosomiasis and for liver fluke infection, which can cause a diverse spectrum of human disease including bile duct cancer. 

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With winter temperatures in Maricopa County rarely dipping below freezing--60 degrees and raining, like today, is one of its more wintry days--Arizona is a perfect home for virus-carrying mosquitoes to overwinter, allowing the virus to survive.

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People riding free-floating bike share rentals in Seattle are wearing helmets infrequently, according to a new analysis conducted by University of Washington researchers. Only 20 percent of bike share riders wore helmets in the study, while more than 90 percent of cyclists wore helmets while riding their own bikes. Different research on the free-floating bike share systems showed that bikes were usually available in all Seattle neighborhoods across economic, racial and ethnic lines. However, more bikes were located in more-advantaged neighborhoods.

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“Our aim,” the authors write, “is therefore to use our collective experiences and knowledge to highlight how the current debate about gene drives could benefit from lessons learned from other contexts and sound communication approaches involving multiple actors.”

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Researchers at the University of Oxford have performed the most definitive study to date on the relationship between technology use and adolescent mental health, examining data from over 300,000 teenagers and parents in the UK and USA. At most, only 0.4% of adolescent wellbeing is related to screen use - which only slightly surpasses the negative effect of regularly eating potatoes. The findings were published today in Nature Human Behaviour.

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For the first time, researchers at University of California San Diego have used rapid 3D printing technologies to create a spinal cord, then successfully implanted that scaffolding, loaded with neural stem cells, into sites of severe spinal cord injury in rats.

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Researchers from Lund University and ORNL are using neutrons to study cleaner approaches to using biomass by investigating how biomasses degrade as they are exposed to extreme temperatures, and how the biomass byproducts could potentially be used in alternative applications.

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Incorporating pharmacists with an expanded scope into the community or hospital emergency departments (ED) could significantly reduce ED crowdedness, according to a new study.

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The factors that put children at risk of becoming obese within the first 12 months of their life may differ for Hispanic and non-Hispanic babies. This is a conclusion of a new study in the journal Pediatric Research, which is published by Springer Nature. Lead authors, Sahel Hazrati and Farah Khan of the Inova Translational Medicine Institute in the US, investigated factors associated with excess weight in the first year of life in Hispanic versus non-Hispanic white children.

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January is Cervical Health Awareness Month, and the National Cervical Cancer Coalition is urging women to make a New Year’s resolution to talk with their health care providers.

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Microbiome community linked to lower influenza susceptibility

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Giving your child extra time on the iPad for good behaviour may not be the best idea according to a new University of Guelph study.

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Two-thirds of stroke survivors are in complete mental health despite the impact of their stroke, according to a large, nationally representative Canadian study conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.

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Pregnant women with influenza are more likely to experience complications, but how this affects infants is unclear. A newBirth Defects Researchstudy uncovers the potential risks to infants.

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A high proportion of older people with hearing aids, especially those with lower incomes, report having trouble hearing and difficulty accessing hearing care services, according to a study from researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the New Jersey Department of Health formalized a partnership that brought a member of the medical school’s faculty in as medical director of the laboratory. The lab oversees clinical diagnostic and surveillance testing; improvement service, which handles inspections and protocol compliance; and testing drinking water and groundwater, as well as handling environmental evaluations of pollutants, toxins, and heavy metals. Te director also supervises the testing of medicinal marijuana.

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Americans are happier in states where governments spend more on public goods, such as libraries, parks, highways, natural resources and police protection, a Baylor University study has found.

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As the New Year approaches, Loyola Medicine family physician Kit Lee, MD, FAAMA is offering 10 holistic lifestyle tips that can boost your health and potentially reduce the need for medications.

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Covered on NBC and CBS

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Wolters Kluwer, Health and the American Journal of Nursing (AJN) announced the 2018 winners of its annual AJN Book of the Year Awards honoring exceptional texts for advancing healthcare quality. The list of winners appears in the January 2019 issue of AJN, the “leading voice of nursing since 1900.” AJN is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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Experts and research on important topics in the healthcare system

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Ernst-led team will evaluate adjuvants for both antigen- and dose-sparing capabilities, which may result in decreased cost of vaccines and improved compliance in the battle against infectious diseases.

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Appointments Strengthen Institute’s Efforts to Improve Health of People and Communities Locally and Abroad

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The more abusive interactions street-based female sex workers (FSWs) have with police, the higher their risk of violence at the hands of clients, a new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests.

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America lost 20,360 children and teens in 2016 -- 60 percent of them to preventable injuries, a new study shows. But while death rates from the top cause – motor vehicle crashes – have declined steadily since 1999, rates from the second-leading cause - firearms - have gone up. It’s the first time all causes of child and adolescent death have been tallied by both mechanism and intent.

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Recognizing the threat that climate change poses to both human health and the health care system itself, Harvard Medical School and its affiliated hospitals and clinical institutes have committed to extensively decarbonize their operations.

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The Stony Brook University Cerebrovascular and Stroke Center will launch Long Island’s first Mobile Stroke Unit (MSU) program

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A computer-generated model developed by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers adds to evidence that providing universal vaccination against meningitis B infection to students entering college may be too costly to justify the absolute number of cases it would prevent. The study also suggests that if vaccine developers could significantly lower the price, universal vaccination might be worth requiring on college campuses.

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Moderate to severe loneliness can persist across adult lifespans, but UC San Diego School of Medicine researchers found it is particularly acute in three age periods: late-20s, mid-50s and late-80s. Wisdom proved a protective factor.

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The increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance in the U.S. appears more closely linked with their occasional use by many people than by their repeated use among smaller numbers of people, according to a large new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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Janice Bowie, PhD, MPH, an expert in health disparities and community-based research methods, has been named director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) program.

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In Afghanistan’s most underdeveloped regions, attitudes towards education and child marriage appear to have changed significantly since the overthrow of the Taliban government in 2002, according to a study led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Recent study finds text-based counseling may help decrease HIV risk among stigmatized European community.

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Researchers at McMaster University have identified trends linking health and lifestyle factors like access to public transit, the variety of fresh fruits and vegetables in grocery stores, the prices of popular foods, the availability and prices of cigarettes and alcohol, and the promotion, or lack thereof, of healthy foods in restaurants. The study findings are based on detailed data collected across Canada’s 10 provinces.

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Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey is leading a research study aimed at improving skin cancer protection behaviors in young adults through an online intervention.

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A homeless individual is one who lacks fixed and reliable housing, and it is estimated that 553,000 people fit that description on any given night in the United States. A new retrospective cohort study by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center examines patterns, causes and outcomes of acute hospitalizations between 2007 and 2013 for homeless individuals and non-homeless control groups in three populous and diverse U.S. states: Florida, California and Massachusetts. Data suggest a rise in acute hospital use among homeless individuals for mental illness and substance use disorder. The results were published in the journal Medical Care on Dec. 11.

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Face masks appear to provide important protection against drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria for hog farm workers and for household members to whom they might otherwise transmit the bacteria, according to a study led by scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Of the 34 million people worldwide with HIV, and the 200 million with schistosomiasis, the majority live in Africa— where millions of people are simultaneously infected with both diseases. Now, researchers reporting in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases have shown that schistosomiasis infections are associated with increased HIV onward transmission, HIV acquisition in HIV negative women with urogenital schistosomiasis, and progression to death in HIV positive women.

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Manitoba has the highest provincial incident rate of active tuberculosis (TB) in Canada, and stopping its spread depends on, among other things, the availability of high-quality, comprehensive data to ensure early and complete treatment, according to a new study by the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) at the University of Manitoba.

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People newly diagnosed with cancer, particularly blood cancers, and those treated with chemotherapy have a greater risk of developing shingles, according to a new study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. The findings may help guide efforts to prevent the often painful skin condition in cancer patients through the use of new vaccines. The large prospective study expands on previous research by examining the risk of shingles before and after a new cancer diagnosis and across a range of cancer types among approximately 240,000 adults in Australia from 2006 to 2015.