Receiving an updated flu vaccine every season gives your immune system the best defense against the ever-changing flu virus, write Drs. Megan Berman and Richard Rupp in their latest Vaccine Smarts column.

So, what can we do to help protect ourselves when traveling so we don’t get sick, asks Dr. Samuel Mathis in his latest column. He provides tips to keep immune systems healthy and focused on fighting of disease.

Dr. Jochen Reiser spoke to the Houston Business Journal about boosting biotech innovation, growing UTMB’s commercial output and making UTMB a go-to spot for various specialties of care. “If I were to ask you who takes care of the enormous amount of kidney diseases in the state of Texas, you wouldn’t be able to name a specific institution. But if I asked you who takes care of cancer, you’d say [the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center],” Reiser said. “In Texas, we can be that provider of choice for kidney health.”

Drinking raw unpasteurized milk can be dangerous because of the presence of pathogenic bacteria and viruses, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their weekly Medical Discovery News column.

A study published by the CDC called for more active monitoring of those exposed to H5N1 and additional testing. “This is a significant move towards the assessment that these H5N1 viruses are a greater risk than the CDC estimated before,” Dr. Gregory Gray said.

“Given that the concerns of pregnant women and the concerns of women with body dysmorphic disorder are similar in their nature, it is likely that pregnant women with body dysmorphic disorder symptoms may experience more difficulty adjusting to their rapidly changing bodies,” writes UTMB’s A. Hope Gibson and colleagues about their recent paper on pregnancy and body image.

“This is a significant move towards the assessment that these H5N1 viruses are a greater risk than the CDC estimated before,” UTMB’s Dr. Gregory Gray tells the AP as health officials call for more testing of farm workers.

Studies show that being kind to one another has numerous health benefits, writes Dr. Samuel Mathis in this week’s column.