UTMB News Articles

Dr. Joseph Gosnell, chief resident physician of pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, is an official 2023 Emerging Liver Scholar Award winner.

Rocky Mountain spotted fever is the deadliest tick-borne disease. If left untreated, it will kill roughly 20 percent of those who contract it, said Dr. David Walker, a professor of pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Even when treated with doxycycline, it is fatal in about 4 percent of cases, he said. “You’ve got to treat them before day five if you don’t want death to start occurring,” Walker said. “It’s not an easy diagnosis to make.”

Malaria typically turns up in the U.S. when American residents travel abroad, contract malaria and then return home. On the other hand, when experts say eight new cases were “locally acquired,” that means that the infected individual acquired the virus from a mosquito inside the U.S., said Dr. Scott Weaver, virologist and director of the Institute for Human Infections & Immunity and a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

The Facts newspaper released its list of Readers’ Choice winners for 2023. The UTMB Health Angleton Danbury Campus won 1st place in three categories: Favorite Hospital, Favorite ER and Favorite Urgent Care Facility.

In his newspaper column, Dr. Samuel Mathis explained that MCTs work by supercharging our utilization of fat stores for energy. “MCT oil is not for everyone, but it may be a helpful additive for those looking for something extra to give them a little boost in their health journey,” he wrote.

“Because of international travel, population migration and climate change, diseases spread by mosquitos may begin to occur in greater numbers in the United States,” wrote Drs. Megan Berman and Richard Rupp in Vaccine Smarts. “Existing vaccines and new ones under development will play a major role in keeping us safe from such diseases. But for now, just keep using your mosquito repellant.”

Scientists have developed a new approach using “dancing molecules” to repair the spinal cord and reverse paralysis after a severe spinal cord injury, explained Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in Medical Discovery News.

“It is important to clearly communicate parental expectations in an age-appropriate manner and set a good example,” wrote Dr. Sally Robinson in her column. “Sometimes we just have to think about what we are saying.”

Dr. Samuel Mathis, assistant professor in the University of Texas Medical Branch Department of Family Medicine, said the resilient virus can live for days and there are plenty of places for it to linger on cruise ships. Mathis, who works in Galveston, cruise port, has seen passengers with norovirus. He said that while the virus itself is uncomfortable, it isn’t typically dangerous. “The biggest risk for almost everyone — but especially for seniors — is actually the risk of dehydration: losing all that fluid through nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.”

Apart from its erratic effects on humans, forecasting West Nile virus outbreaks remain a challenge. Dr. Scott Weaver, a leading medical entomologist and virologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston said the virus is “very widespread, still zoonotic...[and although] it's transmitted more efficiently by Culex mosquitoes when it's hot, it does well both in drought and rainy conditions.”

Health officials, city council members, police officers and trauma doctors gathered Thursday at a Houston City Council meeting to discuss how to prevent both intentional and accidental shootings. “As a pediatric surgeon, I’m tired of seeing these children come in every day to the ER. I’m tired of holding them as they die and as they suffer," said Dr. Bindi Naik-Mathuria with the University of Texas Medical Branch.