Public Health News and Research

RSS

Measuring air quality across London could help fight against COVID-19

Measuring air quality across London could help fight COVID-19 by providing a rapid means of deciding whether to reduce public transport movement - given strong links between exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 transmission, a new study reveals.

26 Jun 2020

Study evaluates Oregon's occupational public health surveillance system

A recent study evaluating the effectiveness of Oregon's occupational health monitoring system concludes that the state needs to collect and share data about workplace dangers in a more timely, relevant fashion to allow for rapid intervention.

26 Jun 2020

Study finds 26% drop in the number of EMS calls since the start of COVID-19 pandemic

Since early March and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., 911 calls for emergency medical services have dropped by 26.1 % compared to the past two years, a new study led by a University at Buffalo researcher has found.

26 Jun 2020

Montana State researcher helps develop a better understanding of COVID-19 spread

How many people in the U.S. have had COVID-19? Using a database of information collected after the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, a Montana State University researcher is helping develop a better understanding of the spread of the novel coronavirus.

26 Jun 2020

New study helps policymakers prepare challenges associated with aging population

The fact that people are living longer lives represents one of the crowning achievements of the last century, but also requires careful planning on the part of governments.

26 Jun 2020

New Ebola strain may emerge in the Democratic Republic of Congo, say scientists

Scientists fear a new Ebola strain might emerge in the Democratic Republic of Congo if two versions of the disease mix together to form a new, potentially deadlier version.

26 Jun 2020

Sweeps of homeless camps run counter to COVID guidance and pile on health risks

Melody Lewis lives like a nomad in the heart of downtown. Poking her head out of her green tent on a recent June day, the 57-year-old pointed a few blocks away to the place where city crews picked up her tent from a sidewalk median earlier this spring and replaced it with landscaping rocks, fencing and signs warning trespassers to keep out.

26 Jun 2020

Timing of antibody testing is critical for accurate COVID-19 detection

Scientists have analysed data from around the world to examine the accuracy of antibody tests for COVID-19, and have shown that the timing of testing is critical. The tests do not work accurately when administered at the wrong time.

26 Jun 2020

Seniors in low-income housing live in fear of COVID infection

Davetta Brooks, 75, who has heart failure, a fractured hip and macular degeneration, is afraid. Conditions in her low-income senior building on Chicago's Near West Side — the Congressman George W. Collins Apartments — are "deplorable," she said.

26 Jun 2020

Data provides current picture of world's air quality

It is not unusual to come across headlines about pollution or global warming and find that they reach different conclusions depending upon the data source.

26 Jun 2020

Study: Hard shell helmets can prevent concussion in girls' lacrosse players

According to a new study, high school girls' lacrosse players who may, but are not required to, wear flexible headgear are at a higher risk of getting a concussion from a stick or ball impact than boys' lacrosse players, who are required to wear a hard shell helmet with a full face mask.

26 Jun 2020

Study may provide opportunities to improve diet quality among cancer survivors

Xue and colleagues analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2005-2014 on 2,361 cancer survivors and 23,114 participants who had not had cancer as a comparison group.

26 Jun 2020

Antibody tests may give false hope of immunity, health experts warn

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, health experts warn against the use of antibody tests to determine if a person has immunity against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). An antibody test determines if a person developed antibodies against the infection due to past exposure.

26 Jun 2020

SARS-CoV-2 has been evolving for at least 7 years

The burning question is how novel viruses acquire the ability to recognize, bind to and enter human cells for the first time – whether this is dependent only on viral proteins recognizing host cell proteins, or adaptations in other viral processes that allow replication in a human host.

25 Jun 2020

Race, rurality play huge role in Georgia areas hardest hit by COVID-19

While counties in populous metropolitan Atlanta had the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the initial weeks following Georgia's first reported case, it was rural Southwest Georgia counties, with a higher number of black residents and lower number of ICU beds, experiencing the highest rates of infection and death per capita, investigators report.

25 Jun 2020

Study: People with IDD living in residential group homes more likely to die from COVID-19

A new study published recently in ScienceDirect by researchers from Syracuse University and SUNY Upstate Medical University shows that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities living in residential group homes are more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 and die from the virus than those without IDD.

25 Jun 2020

Acknowledging human right to health could galvanize people, organizations to make real change

Acknowledging health as a universal human right could galvanize people and organizations to make major improvements in health worldwide, according to new research from faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

25 Jun 2020

New study explores post-COVID-19 inflammatory condition in children

In recent weeks, a multisystem hyperinflammatory condition has emerged in children in association with prior exposure or infection to SARS-CoV-2.

25 Jun 2020

Study identifies new allergy pathway

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have identified the sequence of molecular events by which tiny, tick-like creatures called house dust mites trigger asthma and allergic rhinitis.

25 Jun 2020

SARS-CoV-2 can replicate in human pediatric gastric organoids

A diverse research group from the United Kingdom, Italy, China, and Australia established a first expandable human gastric organoid culture across fetal developmental stages, supporting the hypothesis that fetal tissue seems to be much less susceptible to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection – especially in the early stages of development.

25 Jun 2020