“People are sick of hearing about COVID. So are we!” Drs. Megan Berman and Richard Rupp wrote in the latest Vaccine Smarts column. “But the truth is, the virus is not sick of us, and it’s not going anywhere. There has been nearly a 30 percent increase in COVID hospitalizations among elderly adults in the past two weeks. You should be aware of new information.”
“There is a dangerous misconception out there concerning repeat infections with COVID,” wrote Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their Medical Discovery News column.
A couple of recent studies support the health benefits of short bursts of exercise reducing cardiovascular and cancer risk up to 40 to 50 percent. You might think of them as exercise snacks, Dr. Victor Sierpina suggested.
People are sick of hearing about COVID. So are we! But the truth is, the virus is not sick of us, and it’s not going anywhere. There has been nearly a 30 percent increase in COVID hospitalizations among elderly adults in the past two weeks. You should be aware of new information.
From family medicine and pediatrics to specialties like cardiology, orthopedics and many more, the physicians at The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB Health) are dedicated to improving the health of Texas.
To help health care professionals find the connections between health conditions, risk and treatment plans, researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch developed machine learning methods that can automatically find conditions that frequently go together in national level data, and used them to predict the risk of a patient in the clinic, and for designing targeted treatments.
Be prepared for cold weather
COVID shots designed to protect against the omicron variant trigger a weaker immune response against the rapidly emerging BQ.1.1 subvariant than the previously dominant strain, according to a new lab study. Scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in a study published online Tuesday in Nature Medicine, found that the booster shots performed well against the BA.5 subvariant they were designed to target. But the boosters did not trigger a robust response when faced with BQ.1.1, the scientists found. Antibodies were about four times lower against BQ.1.1 compared with BA.5. These neutralizing antibodies prevent the virus that causes COVID-19 from invading human cells. Many other media organizations reported this news.
The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded the UTMB team with a $3.5 million grant to continue following adolescents for five more years, offering the researchers a rare chance to uncover the short- and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on teenage mental, social and behavioral health. “We’ll be able to do that in a really unique way because we serendipitously had this data from before the pandemic,” said Dr. Jeff Temple. “So we can actually see the effects the pandemic had on these kids.”
The prevalence of sexting and its spread to younger ages reflects how widespread cellphone use is and how easy it is to send explicit images, said Jeff Temple, an expert in adolescent health and social media whose 2011 research popularized the term “sexting.” “The fact that 17-year-olds, 16-year-olds, 15-year-olds are sexting is not a surprise,” he said. “If we had phones back in the 1400s, those same ages would be sexting as well.”
University of Texas Medical Branch students are teaching science, technology, engineering and math to Galveston Independent School District students through a program officials hope will instill confidence in public school participants and inspire careers. Applications to volunteer in the program open up each semester and medical branch students make it known whether they’d like to be a tutor or mentor, Chris Soudah, executive president of the Connect at UTMB, said.
“Scientists everywhere celebrate the Nobels with spirited discussions, banter on the deserving individuals who were overlooked and should have won and of course, admiration for those awarded,” wrote Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their Medical Discovery News column. They also discussed other deserving science awards that get overlooked as well.
“In my medical practice, I often meet with people who live alone and with little or no social support system,” wrote Dr. Victor S. Sierpina in this column. “They are geographically distanced from their families or estranged from their children or other loved ones. They often do not have a community of faith or participate in other social networks.” If you know anyone like that, send them a note, call them or take them some goodies. “Even a small drop of love and caring can be like a candle shining into the darkened corners of people’s lives. Be that light, even if you need to come out of your own corner to do it.”
During a recent chat with Meagan Clanahan of Houston Moms, Dr. Bindi Naik-Mathuria covered some common seasonal safety tips to help everyone have a happy, healthy, uneventful holiday season.
Q: I was recently sick and I think it must have been the flu. Do I still need a flu shot? A: The short answer is yes, get vaccinated. You are among the millions who have already suffered a respiratory illness this season. We are experiencing a “tripledemic” with flu, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), causing a large number of infections and hospitalizations. RSV and about a dozen other common viruses cause flu-like illnesses in adults.
With a $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, University of Texas Medical Branch researchers will study the short- and long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents’ mental, behavioral and social health.
The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) has been awarded a project agreement worth up to $87.4 million by the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD) Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) within the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), through the Medical CBRN Defense Consortium (MCDC) Other Transaction Authority (OTA), for the development of a vaccine technology against advanced and emerging viral threats. Two deadly viruses of significance to military personnel will be targeted for vaccine protection. These are Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) and Nipah virus (NiV).
Dr. Yusif Hajiyev, UTMB Health pediatric ENT, recently sat down with Meagan Clanahan of Houston Moms to discuss ear tubes in children. From what conditions might prompt the need for tubes to the rules for swimming and bathing after the procedure.
Most burns associated with cooking in 2013-2017 were caused by contact with a hot object or liquid rather than by fire or flame. Read some tips to prevent burn injuries.
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch have developed a way to study gestational disease thanks to a breakthrough that mimics pregnancy using miniature organ models made up of human cells embedded onto silicon surfaces.