New research has revealed a blood substitute that would alleviate blood shortages, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their latest Medical Discovery News column.

A new study shows that bird flu has silently spread from animals to some veterinarians, the AP reports. “This means that people are being infected, likely due to their occupational exposures, and not developing signs of illness and therefore not seeking medical care,” UTMB’s Dr. Gregory Gray said. This news was picked up by news outlets across the nation and internationally.

"If the circulating H5 viruses become more transmissible between humans, we are not going to be able to control transmission as the viruses will spread rapidly and often subclinically," says Dr. Gregory Gray. The first study on the H5N1 bird flu outbreak from the CDC to make it to publication under the Trump administration came out on Thursday, NPR reports.

There are health benefits in “stopping to smell the roses,” writes Dr. Samuel Mathis. A recent study found that individuals who sat in a garden landscape and smelled the plants had lower heart rates and improved autonomic nervous system responses to stressful stimuli, he writes.

“While previous studies have analyzed how one or a few non-medical factors impact our health, Americans often face multiple barriers leading to different levels of health risks that are not yet well-understood,” says UTMB’s Dr. Suresh Bhavnani. A new study from Bhavnani and colleagues uses artificial intelligence to uncover how such nonmedical factors occur together across patients and their risks for outcomes.

H5N1, the avian influenzas virus known to decimate wildfowl in Asia and Europe, is jumping into mammals in North America, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their latest Medical Discovery News column. The overall concern is the spread to humans and the start of a pandemic, the write.

At the second edition of the Model of Care Forum in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, UTMB’s Wayne Keathley stressed the urgent need to “strengthen prevention efforts by fostering healthier lifestyles such as proper nutrition, regular physical activity, mental health awareness, smoking cessation, and encouraging routine medical checkups.”

Dr. Victor S. Sierpina quotes Archbishop Desmond Tutu in his column about cultivating love and compassion: “… be a reservoir of joy, an oasis of peace, a pool of serenity that can ripple out to all those around you.”

The answer to why we don’t vaccinate against avian flu in the U.S. lies in a combination of science, economics, and global trade policies, write Drs. Megan Berman and Richard Rupp in their latest Vaccine Smarts column.

“Alcohol is woven into the fabric of many cultures, and from college parties to family gatherings, it's hard to avoid," UTMB’s Dr. Christine Kley tells Parade for a story on how alcohol causes inflammation.