Feature Channels: Public Health

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As medical personnel and public health officials are responding to the first reported cases of Ebola Virus in the United States, many of the safety and treatment procedures for treating the virus and preventing its spread are being reexamined. One of the tenets for minimizing the risk of spreading the disease has been a 21-day quarantine period for individuals who might have been exposed to the virus. But a new study by Charles Haas, PhD, a professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering, suggests that 21 days might not be enough to completely prevent spread of the virus.

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Nationality at birth appears to play a significant role in whether or not adults in the United States are routinely vaccinated for preventable diseases, a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds, reflecting a risky medical lapse for more than one in ten people nationwide.

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Planning to travel outside the U.S. this holiday season? A travel medicine checkup can help prepare you for health complications you may encounter on the road.

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College athletes who play contact sports are more than twice as likely to carry the deadly superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylocuccus aureus (MRSA) than peers who play non-contact sports, according to a Vanderbilt study released at IDWeek 2014.

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With the 2014-15 flu season officially underway, pharmacy professor Daniel Hussar, PhD, at Philadelphia College of Pharmacy at University of the Sciences, urges people to stop worrying about Ebola and get a flu shot instead.

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Case Western Reserve University will present Ebola expert, Daniel Bausch, MD, in a public special lecture from 2 to 3 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 16, in Wolstein Research Building Auditorium, 2103 Cornell Rd., Cleveland. He will address “From the Front Lines of the Battle with Ebola.”

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A web-based system that allows preschools and child care centers to report illnesses to local public health departments could improve the detection of disease outbreaks and allow resources to be mobilized more quickly.

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A University of Nebraska Medical Center research team has determined that a longtime antibiotic, vancomycin, is still effective in treating Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections and that physicians should continue to use the drug even though several newer antibiotics are now available in the marketplace.

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Texting while driving with Google Glass is clearly a distraction, a new University of Central Florida study has concluded -- but there is a twist. In the study texting Glass users outperformed smartphone users when regaining control of their vehicles after a traffic incident.

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Well-publicized tragedies on college campuses across the US have prompted university officials to implement alert systems that broadcast real-time warnings to students, faculty, and staff. Such systems can be highly effective tools, but only if users take them seriously.

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Asian Americans are at a high risk for diabetes, hypertension, heart attack and stroke because are under a misconception that their diet is healthy and not a risk factor for these chronic diseases.

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New research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that large chain restaurants, whose core menu offerings are generally high in calories, fat and sodium, introduced newer food and beverage options that, on average, contain 60 fewer calories than their traditional menu selections in 2012 and 2013.

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Two randomized trials in the October 8 issue of JAMA examine new vaccination strategies for the prevention and control of avian influenza, often referred to as “bird flu.” This is a theme issue on infectious disease.

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A Saint Louis University study in JAMA reveals a vaccination strategy researchers can continue to study to protect people from bird flu that has the potential to become epidemic.

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A new study suggests that drops of fuel spilled at gas stations — which occur frequently with fill-ups — could cumulatively be causing long-term environmental damage to soil and groundwater in residential areas in close proximity to the stations.

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Dr. Amisha Malhotra, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, explains the symptoms of enterovirus D68, why children are more susceptible and which children are at risk for developing more serious illness. Dr. Melvin Weinstein, chief of infectious disease at the medical school and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, also provides guidance for adults who are at risk due to immune or respiratory disorders.

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Children's Hospital Los Angeles reports first case of a patient with enterovirus D68. The hospital's doctors offer parents tips on how to recognize symptoms and seek medical attention for their kids.

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Faisal Shuaib, M.D., Dr.P.H., graduated from the UAB School of Public Health in 2010 and now serves as the head of the National Ebola Emergency Operations Center in Africa’s most populous country.

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The inability of older adults to identify scents is a strong predictor of death within five years. Almost 40% of those who failed a smelling test died during that period, compared to 10% of those with a healthy sense of smell. Olfactory dysfunction predicted mortality better than a diagnosis of heart failure or cancer.

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A patient being treated at a Dallas hospital is the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, health officials announced yesterday. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the unidentified man left Liberia on September 19 and arrived in the United States on September 20. At that time, the individual did not have symptoms, but several days later, he began to feel ill. He went to a local emergency department, but was discharged and went home. As he continued to be symptomatic, he went to the emergency department of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital where is was admitted and isolated on Sunday.

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Scientists from Thomas Jefferson University and the National Institutes of Health come one step closer to understanding the difficulty of treating joint infection. Biofilm formation plays a role.

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People are significantly more likely to have negative attitudes toward those suffering from drug addiction than those with mental illness, and don’t support insurance, housing, and employment policies that benefit those dependent on drugs, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.

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Despite advances, millions of children worldwide still die before their fifth birthday, with complications from preterm birth and pneumonia together killing nearly 2 million young children in 2013, according to a study led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Born in Sierra Leone, Mafudia Suaray, a family physician at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, is helping to raise awareness about the disease. She answers some of the common questions about this new international health crisis.

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Medications are the leading cause of allergy-related sudden deaths in the U.S., according to an analysis of death certificates from 1999 to 2010, conducted by researchers at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The study, published online today in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, also found that the risk of fatal drug-induced allergic reactions was particularly high among older people and African-Americans and that such deaths increased significantly in the U.S. in recent years.

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It's a simple message: Call 9-1-1 at the first warning signs of a heart attack. Unfortunately, many still choose to either drive to the hospital, or wait to see if the symptoms disappear. New research from the MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute reconfirms relying on emergency medical services helps heart attack patients avoid delays and expedite treatment.

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In a paper published this week online in Global Society, researchers with University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Urban Studies and Planning Program, also at UC San Diego, present a bioregional guide that merges place-based (territorial) city planning and ecosystem management along the United States-Mexico border as way to improve human and environmental health.

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A statistical report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention aligns with a previously released estimate about the potential threat of the Ebola virus by a national group of scientists, including simulation scientists with Virginia Tech.

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Preparedness for an emergency or disaster begins at home. That’s the message officials are trying to convey during September, which is National Preparedness Month.

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Public support for effective road safety laws, already solid, can be strengthened by a single number: a statistic that quantifies the traffic-related injury risks associated with a given law, according to a new study from the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Following a doubling of the incidence and prevalence of diabetes in the U.S. from 1990-2008, new data suggest a plateauing of the rate between 2008 and 2012 for adults, however the incidence continued to increase in Hispanic and non-Hispanic black adults, according to a study in the September 24 issue of JAMA.

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Published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, the study, “Perceptions of genetic testing and genomic medicine among drug users,” gauged drug users’ attitudes and understandings of genetics and genetic testing through six focus groups. The focus groups were segregated by race and ethnicity to increase participants’ comfort in talking about racial and ethnic issues. Over half of the participants (53%) reported having either HIV/AIDs or HCV, or a co-infection, and understood the potential value of genetic testing.

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Among students who apply to and attend medical school, those from underrepresented minority backgrounds are more likely than white and Asian students to have attended a community college, and were also more likely to commit to working with underserved populations.

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An interdisciplinary team of George Washington University researchers are investigating more accurate and rapid methods of identification of bacterial pathogens in patients with pulmonary infections, which could lead to more targeted antimicrobial therapy with potentially less adverse effects and lower costs. Next-generation sequencing of samples from the sputum of intubated patients, as outlined in their recently published paper in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, may enable more focused treatment of pneumonia in the critically ill.

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APL has developed technologies for electronic disease surveillance that help improve the timeliness of access to this type of data and the corresponding analysis.