UTMB Health was recognized as a top performer in Vizient’s Bernard A. Birnbaum Quality and Accountability Awards for Pediatric Hospital Services.

From reducing inflammation to improving gut health and blood sugar levels, berries have a myriad of health benefits writes Dr. Samuel Mathis. “Consider adding 1/2 a cup of berries to your daily diet for the greatest health benefits,” Mathis writes.

Fungal infections kill more than a million people every year worldwide but we still don’t have a single licensed vaccine to prevent them, write Drs. Megan Berman and Richard Rupp. The Vaccine Smarts writers dig into the challenges scientists face in creating a vaccine against the various fungi spreading disease.

The lives of hundreds of women could be saved if they underwent not only the tried-and-true mammography but also additional imaging to screen for breast cancer, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel.

Florida plans to eliminate school vaccine mandates for hepatitis B despite a rise in cases, reports hep. UTMB’s Dr. Scott Weaver explained that the HBV vaccine is safe and that the vaccine is "not a live, replicating virus, unlike some vaccines, so almost anybody can take it. It can be given to very young babies, and it’s very effective.”

The Democratic Republic of the Congo declared an Ebola outbreak last week, reports The Sun. In their story, The Sun reports on a therapeutic developed by UTMB scientists that “offers '100 per cent protection' against Ebola.” "We're really trying to come up with something that was more practical, easier to use, that could be used to help prevent, control, and contain outbreaks,” said UTMB’s Dr. Thomas Geisbert.

Dr. Scott Weaver spoke about the risk of eliminating the requirement for hepatitis B vaccines for infants and school-age children. “Sexually transmitted diseases, although we think that we can control them with behavior, it doesn't usually work out that way, and so vaccination is a much safer bet than hoping that your children will remain inactive sexually when they reach that age and not acquire the infection as a teenager or early stage adult,” Weaver tells WUSF.