China’s announcement that researchers have quickly identified a microbe causing an outbreak responsible for one death and many hospitalizations is being seen as progress compared to the SARS outbreak in 2003. According to UTMB’s Jim LeDuc, “The biggest challenge in 2003 was the initial reluctance of China to explain what was going on.” Since that time, China has opened its first biosafety level 4 lab in Wuhan, and many of its scientists have trained with LeDuc in the Galveston National Laboratory.

A 1920 plague outbreak on Galveston Island, and the work of UTMB’s Paula Summerly to document the efforts that resulted in elimination of the illness, is revealed in this local story. Summerly’s discoveries have turned up newspaper articles and a doctor’s journal documenting the city’s fight with plague, which included the extermination of more than 46,000 rats.

Dr. Ben Raimer, UTMB president ad interim, recently announced the formation of the official Old Red Medical Museum steering committee, part of an effort to establish a medical museum in UTMB’s oldest building. At the time the building was completed it housed one of the finest human dissection labs in the United States.

Local coverage of the UT System’s town hall meeting seeking input on the search for a new UTMB president. “This is the beginning of the search process and a very important part of it,” said Dr. John Zerwas, UT System executive vice chancellor for health affairs.

A novel coronavirus has been identified in some patients who are part of a cluster of unexplained pneumonia cases in China. UTMB’s Vineet Menachery is one of this story’s contributors. He would like to see more details on patients’ serologic findings and if the virus is a member of the 2B coronavirus family a group that includes SARS.

UTMB’s Farha Syed offers readers advice on how to deal with SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder.

The Galveston County Daily News, January 8, 2020 - Sealy and Smith Laboratory earns national reaccreditation - 2020 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award - Medical humanities, health care subject of upcoming John P. McGovern lecture - Temporary closure of John Sealy Hospital second floor

Houston media coverage on the opening of UTMB’s new Center for Violence Prevention. The facility will help research the causes of various forms of violence in hopes of finding tools to prevent such acts and their effects on society. “We spend a lot of time and energy and money and resources on responding to violence. If we just put a fraction of that into preventing it, we’d save so much money in the long run,” said Jeff Temple, founding director of the center. Becker’s Hospital Review also reported the opening.