Feature Channels: Public Health

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Cancer risk due to arsenic exposure in Hopewell Township (Mercer County), New Jersey is reduced with the use of arsenic treatment systems.

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An ethnic population at high risk for Type 2 diabetes achieved significant control of the disease through participation in community-based health programs, according to a randomized controlled trial published January 31 by researchers at NYU School of Medicine’s Department of Population Health in the journal Clinical Diabetes.

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New research by Arizona State University Professor Jonathan Helm finds that not only do health-care coalitions that share information have better patient outcomes, the benefits extend far beyond disasters.

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Announcement of new chief marketing officer for the University Hospitals system in Northeast Ohio.

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Increases in human life expectancy have slowed dramatically across the world since 1950, according to a study from researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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A report of two young children with burns of the esophagus caused by swallowed button batteries from "fidget spinners" highlights a risk of severe injuries involving these popular toys, according to a series of reports in the January/February Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (JPGN). Official journal of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) and the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, JPGN is published by Wolters Kluwer.

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Although the incidence of appendicitis in the United States has been in decline for many years, the condition still affects approximately seven percent of Americans annually.

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1Data, a collaborative human and animal health project that will save lives and improve the quality of life for people and animals, is finalizing development of its research database and increasing project staff. The project is about a year ahead of schedule.

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Leaders from the community and health system celebrate with ribbon cutting and open house.

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Today, 17 deans at schools of public health in the U.S. and Canada have issued a joint statement on the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World.

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The study proved a mosquito’s preference can shift if that person’s smell is associated with an unpleasant sensation. Hosts who swat at mosquitoes or perform other defensive behaviors may be abandoned, no matter how sweet.

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In both cell cultures and mouse models, a drug used to treat Hepatitis C effectively protected and rescued neural cells infected by the Zika virus — and blocked transmission of the virus to mouse fetuses. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues in Brazil and elsewhere, say their findings support further investigation of using the repurposed drug as a potential treatment for Zika-infected adults, including pregnant women.

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– Injuries are a major public health problem in the United States, accounting for nearly 60 percent of all deaths among Americans between the ages of 1 and 44 years. Survivors of traumatic injuries often face significant physical and mental health challenges, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Amid a steady rise in the number of children diagnosed with ADHD, debate is brewing whether the condition may be a sleep disorder.

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The Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis will launch the regional St. Louis Area Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program (STL-HVIP), which will aim to promote positive alternatives to violence, thanks to a $1.6 million grant from Missouri Foundation for Health.

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A new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that prosecutions in Pennsylvania for violating the state’s straw purchase law increased by nearly 16 times following the 2012 passage of a law requiring a mandatory minimum five-year sentence for individuals convicted of multiple straw purchase violations. In Maryland, prosecutions for background check violations decreased by nearly half following the 2006 Chow v. State of Maryland decision that concluded that temporary gratuitous loans of firearms, where no money changed hands, were not ‘transfers.’

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Minority Health and Health Equity has awarded a five-year, $2.7 million grant to the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health to launch a training program that will inspire undergraduate students to pursue careers in public health and strengthen the future public health workforce.

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Smoking is an issue that has been at the heart of public health concerns for decades, with many efforts to restrict tobacco sales, tax cigarettes and sometimes hard-hitting campaigns to get people to quit smoking. But if the tobacco control community has long agreed on the harms of smoking, the place of reducing, rather than eliminating, harm has been hotly contested.

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Billions of US taxpayer dollars have been invested in Africa over the past 15 years to improve care for millions suffering from the HIV/AIDS epidemic; yet health systems on the continent continue to struggle. What if the investments and lessons learned from HIV could be used to improve care for those with other serious chronic conditions? With this question in mind, researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, along with investigators and clinicians based in Uganda, borrowed an HIV/AIDS innovation to seek inroads against rheumatic heart disease in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Boston, MA – (January 22, 2018) – Legislators from both the Massachusetts House and Senate have voted on a Joint Resolution to urge the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and other public and private health providers to screen Asian Americans for diabetes at a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 23, which is a lower screening BMI than for the general population.

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In an effort to reduce patient misdiagnoses and associated poor patient outcomes from lack of prompt treatment, a Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality researcher is helping to lead the way in providing hospitals a new approach to quantify and monitor diagnostic errors in their quality improvement efforts. The approach, called Symptom-Disease Pair Analysis of Diagnostic Error, or SPADE, is featured in a paper published today in BMJ Quality & Safety.

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More than 700,000 Americans were hospitalized due to illnesses associated with the seasonal flu during the 2014–15 flu season, according to federal estimates. A radical new approach to vaccine development at UCLA may help lower that figure for future flu seasons.

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Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, in collaboration with a team of researchers at the George Washington University and the René Rachou Institute, have received funding from the National Institutes of Health for a Phase Ib clinical trial for a Schistosomiasis vaccine in an endemic area of Brazil.

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New data analysis suggests that people born at the time of the 1957 H2N2 or Asian Flu pandemic were at a higher risk of dying during the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic as well as the resurgent H1N1 outbreak in 2013-2014. And it is not the first time this has happened.

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Lauri Andress, an assistant professor in the West Virginia University School of Public Health, is working to disrupt the current model for how seniors in rural Appalachia access healthy food.

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A new article publishing in the forthcoming volume of the Annual Review of Public Health focuses on harm minimization and smoking cessation, with alternative nicotine products like e-cigarettes emerging as a promising avenue for people who want to quit smoking.

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Canadian researchers’ innovative work promises to make vaccines more effective against tuberculosis and other infectious diseases like the flu.

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A new study from Duke Health has found pregnant women experienced less secondhand smoke exposure since the 2009 passage of the ‘smoking ban’ in North Carolina, which outlawed smoking inside public places such as bars and restaurants.

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An original analysis by researchers at New York University College of Global Public Health and the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University finds that a federal tax on junk food is both legally and administratively feasible.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the suicide rate in the United States increased by 34 percent between 2000 and 2016. While that rate seems high, a team of researchers led by a West Virginia University faculty member believes it is seriously underestimated.

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Orthodontic care, such as braces, bite plates and retainers, typically costs between $3,000 and $8,000. But research out of the West Virginia University School of Dentistry suggests that only half of Appalachian orthodontia patients can complete their treatment.

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Non-communicable diseases — such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and diabetes — are responsible for more than 36 million deaths across the globe each year. 14 million of these constitute premature mortality, and 90 percent of these premature deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries.

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New Appropriateness Criteria Patient Summaries can help patients understand which imaging tests are best for their condition or why they may not need a scan at all. The first item in this first-of-its kind series created by patients for patients in everyday language are now published online in JACR.

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There a few common sense, if perhaps overlooked, steps one can take to reduce one’s risk for catching a cold.

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WCG Foundation will host free webinars Jan. 25 and Feb. 5 on how to streamline the application process for experimental medications for intermediate-size populations of desperately ill patients.

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A new grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will allow ISU scientists to develop new tools to predict and combat harmful algal blooms, a growing threat to human and animal health in Iowa’s lakes. Cyanobacteria, which have the ability to produce toxic byproducts, can grow quickly and form blooms that discolor lake water, typically in warm, shallow surface water during the summer months.

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Your Disease Risk measures an individual's risk of 12 common cancers and five major chronic diseases. The tool, developed by researchers at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, incorporates the latest scientific evidence on disease risk.

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George Washington University's Department of Physical Therapy and Health Care Sciences has been renamed to Department of Health, Human Function, and Rehabilitation Sciences.

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UCR study shows how intensive pesticide use is driving mosquito evolution at the genetic level

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A University of Vermont research study, which discovered Instagram photos hold clues to aid in the early detection of depression, was one of the 20 most popular pieces of academic research in all of 2017, according to a new ranking.

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Blacks and Hispanic very preterm infants are more likely to be born at New York City hospitals with higher risk-adjusted neonatal morbidity-mortality rates, and these differences contribute to excess morbidity and mortality among black and Hispanic infants. These differences in hospital of birth explained 39.9% of the black-white disparity and 29.5% of the Hispanic-white disparity in outcomes.

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Half of sepsis survivors never fully recover; Dr. Derek Angus lays out an approach to change that.

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Deciding to stop smoking is one of the most common, beneficial and difficult New Year’s resolutions. Smoking reminders are abundant, nicotine withdrawal is difficult and the resolution process itself is flawed.

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Through gene therapy, researchers engineered blood-forming stem cells (hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, or HSPCs) to carry chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) genes to make cells that can detect and destroy HIV-infected cells. These engineered cells persisted for more than two years