Scientists at UTMB are reverse engineering this version of the coronavirus to figure out exactly what they are dealing with. “The data we've presented has been presented to the FDA, CDC, and government agencies and of course our long-term collaborators of Pfizer BioNTech,” Dr. Pei-Yong Shi said.
The TULSA-PRO MRI treatment uses ultrasound technology to eliminate cancer but leaves surrounding, healthy tissue unharmed. “(T)he computer is sending these waves out like a beacon from a lighthouse and it’s destroying the tissue as it sweeps back-and-forth,” said Dr. Eric Walser, UTMB urologist.
Several non-credible social media threats targeting Virginia schools appeared following the Nov. 30 shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan that left four dead. “There’s a contagion effect that we know about in terms of suicides, shootings, bad things happening, and people copycat what they see,” said Dr. Jeff Temple, a professor and psychologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch who studies adolescent violence. “Coupled with the real adolescent mental health crisis caused by COVID and everything else, we’re seeing more and more of this.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit two years ago, the country already was facing a different crisis—an opioid epidemic. And as shutdowns and working from home spread, the opioid epidemic worsened as many who struggled with opioid use found themselves isolated from support and spiraling in their addictions, experts say. “All of this physical distancing and this social distancing has impacted the ability to get treatment, remain in treatment and have their support systems in place,” said Dr. Kathryn Cunningham, director of the University of Texas Medical Branch Center for Addiction Research.
The article in The Magazine section of the Greek news website quoted a 2018 study by Dr. Jeff Temple, director of Center for Violence Prevention at UTMB: “As with sex, in sexting if there is no consent or something is done compulsorily, there are negative issues in mental health.”
The fact that it’s easy to get to and not embarrassing to expose is a small part of it, but there are important technical reasons, write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in the latest Medical Discovery News column.
Dr. Colleen Silva, director of Breast Health and professor of surgery at UTMB, commented on the importance of survivor support groups. “I think sharing your own experiences, asking questions about what to expect, expressing your fears or concerns with women who have been through it is very important and plays a vital role in developing personal resiliency and making it successfully through the entire treatment. Some patients have told me that being a part of this support group saved their lives,” Silva said.
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The COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Champion Network aims to educate colleagues, patients and communities about the safety and benefits of COVID-19 vaccines, and Team Halo is a group of scientists and healthcare professionals from around the world, working to end the pandemic by volunteering their time to address COVID-19 vaccine concerns and misinformation.
Chest Pain Center Accreditation is a quality improvement program designed for hospital cardiovascular teams that are focused on the efficient and effective care of acute coronary syndrome patients.
Omicron harbors more than 30 mutations in its spike protein, the primary target of most of the world’s COVID-19 shots. And it’s certainly dodging some of the antibodies that vaccines goad our bodies into producing—more so, it appears, than the variants that have come before it.
It will also be important to see further studies confirming the latest results, because variables such as the type of cell used can affect their conclusions, says Pei-Yong Shi, a virologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. “In the next week or 10 days, there will be a lot of confirmatory results coming out,” he said.
In South Africa researchers at the Africa Health Research Institute took blood from about a dozen people who had been vaccinated with two shots of the Pfizer vaccine and looked to see how well their antibodies kill the virus. In the experiment, everyone's antibodies were able to neutralize an earlier version of the virus quite well. And that's a lot. "It's astonishing ... in terms of the reduction," said Pei-Yong Shi, a virologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston who has been doing similar experiments to determine the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus. This story was picked up by NPR affiliates across the country.
Microbiologist Pei-Yong Shi runs a high-containment laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Over Thanksgiving, his team began engineering a replica of the new variant to test against the antibodies generated by vaccines. But it doesn’t happen overnight: It will take about two weeks to build the omicron replica, another few days to confirm that it’s an accurate facsimile, and one more week to pit the virus against blood samples from vaccinated people. “I think there is a lot of overreaction, and we just have to sit tight,” Shi said. “There are no results yet, these are just the mutations. What does that mean? We have to see.”
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch began engineering their own copy of the new COVID variant in local labs with genome data shared online. At the same time, researchers were working to get their hands on an isolate of the virus from a person confirmed to have been infected with it. The expert advice is to stay calm about omicron. “I think we have some concern, but it’s too early to worry a lot about this,” said Scott Weaver, director of the Institute for Human Infections & Immunity at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. “The bad news is that this is a variant with a lot of mutations.”
UTMB’s Noelle Anastasio joined the Town Square with Ernie Manouse show on the Houston NPR station to talk about opioids and overdose deaths.
The first omicron variant case was confirmed Monday in Harris County, Judge Lina Hidalgo said. UTMB is one of the local hospitals performing genome sequencing in positive cases to identify the type of variant.
It’s important everyone get vaccinated and boosted, Drs. Meagan Berman and Richard Rupp wrote in their Vaccine Smarts column. Some may wish to be boosted with a different vaccine, but in the end, it’s just important to get whichever is available.
Without needles and without incisions, UTMB Galveston will be the first to treat prostate cancer with this new procedure.
Even when disease or injury prevents a person from speaking, typing or walking, the brain remembers how to do these things. These memories of doing things are called neural processes. The trick is to tap into the neural processes to regain those functions, Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel wrote in their Medical Discovery News column.
Prior studies have shown that residents who receive care from full-time clinical staff have fewer avoidable hospitalizations and lower Medicare spending. Full-time providers also are better positioned to evaluate and intervene after a change in clinical status. “This has led some nursing homes to hire full-time nurse practitioners and to pay more for medical directors that are more present in the facility,” said researcher Dr. James S. Goodwin of the Sealy Center on Aging, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. “In addition, nursing home residents and their families also prefer providers who are available.”