UTMB News Articles

“If you don't have a good mitigation strategy today, you're dead in the water," says Ejay Birkmeyer, assistant vice president of revenue cycle operations at UTMB, tells healthleaders for this story on HIPPA regulations and cyber security.

There is “no evidence that vitamin A supplementation improves the outcome of measles in a child who has no vitamin A deficiency in the United States,” UTMB’s Dr. Susan McLellan tells The Hill for a story on how Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s rhetoric on Texas’s measles outbreak is concerning physicians.

Vaccine Smarts writers Dr. Megan Berman and Dr. Richard Rupp answer questions about measles vaccines in their latest column. Should you get a booster if you can’t remember if you had the measles vaccine? Can a 3-year-old get their second MMR vaccine ahead of schedule? Should I get a booster if traveling to West Texas? Berman and Rupp answer these and other questions.

UTMB’s Dr. Agenor Limon was one of the experts consulted by Prevention for this story on brain development. “We may not learn as easily as we did when we were kids, but we can still learn,” says Limon.

Dr. Victor Sierpina continues his series on cultivating joy in life. Sierpina draws from wisdom shared by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Viktor E. Frankl and others.

Immunity from the measles vaccine available from 1963 to 1967 does not last as long as the current MMR vaccine, Dr. Scott Weaver tells the Morning News. People who received an early iteration of the measles vaccine may want to consider getting another shot, the Morning News reports.

The Associated Press shared a video on YouTube featuring Dr. Scott Weaver explaining what the measles is, how it affects the human body, how it is transmitted and what people can do to avoid getting it.

Of all our senses, smell is probably the least understood, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their latest Medical Discovery News column. Norbert and Niesel dive into what science does and does not know about how we smell.

The Daily News reported on a UTMB study that found that patients carrying the herpes simplex virus and chickenpox are at a significantly higher risk of developing dementia.

UTMB’s Dr. Philip Keiser helped PolitiFact debunk the idea that the West Texas measles outbreak was started by vaccinated individuals shedding measles virus. Keiser told PolitiFact there’s no scientific literature supporting the notion that a vaccine virus shed from someone who is vaccinated would be transmissible. This news was also shared by Poynter and the Austin American-Statesman.

“Prevention is key, and vaccination is the best protection against measles,” UTMB’s Dr. Rachel Britt tells Pharmacy Times. The measles outbreak in West Texas has so far infected more than 120 individuals and claimed the life of one child.

“On average, one infected person may infect about 15 other people,” UTMB’s Dr. Scott Weaver tells the AP about measles, a disease that was rare in the U.S. but is making a comeback. An unvaccinated child died in the West Texas outbreak this week. “Any of these outbreaks we’re seeing can easily be prevented by increasing the rate of vaccination in the community,” Weaver said. This news was shared nationally and internationally in outlets such as The Independent, Brietbart, Toronto Sun, MSN and many others.

"Many patients had lung complications after surgery in our study. Since these complications put patients at risk of more health problems, longer hospital stays, and higher health care costs, it's important to keep researching better ways to prevent them," said Dr. Marcos F. Vidal Melo. He was part of a team that found that interventions to keep lungs expanded before, during, and after abdominal surgery do not result in less severe breathing problems as compared to the usual care.

Dr. Samuel Mathis shares tips on how to stay healthy during the yearly Mardi Gras celebrations.

New research has revealed a promising experimental vaccine made with the patient’s own cancer cells, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their latest Medical Discovery News column.