“As health care workers test positive for COVID-19, hospitals are facing challenges to appropriately staff units to take care of their patients,” wrote Dr. Prashant Rai. “A new study by Dr. G. Singh looks at a new method technique in performing a common procedure in patients who have tested positive for COVID-19.”

An accurate diagnosis is necessary to establish a proper care plan. Dr. Victor S. Sierpina lists some ways of treating joint issues. Here is one: “Start conservatively because a lot of joint pain will resolve with time and TLC.”

Students in the Bachelor of Science Nursing program at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston’s School of Nursing collected items to donate to the Galveston Diaper Bank. The students and staff donated 3,156 baby diapers and toddler pull-ups, 2,110 baby wipes and 314 adult supplies.

In Medical Discovery News, Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel explore the mystery—and the science—of cats. Be cool out there.

Sexual contact is not the only way monkeypox is spread, points out infectious disease doctor Susan McLellan at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. But she agrees that it is by far the most likely way in this current outbreak, so far. “Epidemiological data for the outbreak in Western Europe and the United States makes that clear,” she said. “We're not detecting many cases in kids and individuals who aren't sexually active. We're detecting cases mostly in individuals from networks with a lot of sexual encounters."

“During this outbreak, there will probably be at least one random case where somebody gets it on a bus. But, you know, that’s going to be profoundly rare, probably less likely than being hit by that bus,” Dr. Susan McLellan from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, said during a recent interview with NPR.

Dr. Karen Dineen Wagner, professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, wrote an article about the need for further evidence-based antidepressant treatments for children and adolescents with depression.

The Austin TV news station interviewed Dr. Ashok Chopra, distinguished professor of microbiology and immunology at UTMB, about this research that uses a bacteriophage platform for the vaccine tested on mice. Other TV stations in central and west Texas picked up the KVUE report. The Houston Chronicle also reported “Scientists sniff out next-generation COVID vaccine.” “The nasal vaccine does not seem to affect the gut microbiota and is more potent in generating systemic and mucosal immune responses than when the vaccine is injected into the muscle of mice,” Chopra said.

“We celebrate National Immunization Awareness Month every August,” Drs. Megan Berman and Richard Rupp wrote in the latest Vaccine Smarts column. “One of the few benefits of the pandemic is that we are more knowledgeable about vaccines development, licensure and how they work. Unfortunately, we are also learning about the danger of vaccine hesitancy and refusal.”

Dr. Victor S. Sierpina explained that Tai Chi involves the slow repetitive shifting of weight from one leg to another and challenges balance control to maintain a center of mass within a changing base of support. “This is likely the same reason that Tai Chi has long been shown to reduce fear of falling in other studies of older adults,” he wrote.