UTMB News

Given some experiences in the past, Victor Sierpina explains his concerns about those calling for Medicare for all.

The Galveston County Daily News, February 26, 2020 - Tickets on sale for St. Vincent’s Clinic benefit concert - UTMB to host ‘Out for Health’ - Clear Lake campus happenings

Local reporting on a vaccine developed by scientists at UTMB working with Baylor College of Medicine found to be effective against SARS. The vaccine never progressed to human testing because it was not completed until 2016. Some now believe it could be useful against COVID-19.

The St. Vincent’s House clinics, as well as five Teen Health Clinics in Galveston, will become part of UTMB’s EPIC electronic records system after receiving $1.45 million from the Sealy & Smith Foundation. The gift will allow for better coordination between health care providers.

The Sealy & Smith Foundation recently awarded $1.45 million in funding to the University of Texas Medical Branch to improve health care access and services to the medically underserved citizens of Galveston. A significant portion of the funding will be used to install UTMB’s Epic Electronic Medical Record at both the St. Vincent’s House community health clinic and at all five Teen Health school-based clinics on the island.

Victor Sierpina highlights research work conducted by students enrolled in UTMB’s complementary and integrative medicine elective. The students chose the course to learn non-drug methods to address patient mental health issues and primary care problems.

The Galveston County Daily News, February 19, 2020 - Earth Day art contest entries now being accepted - Bay Colony Pediatrics tops charts - Volunteers needed

Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to a deadly condition, alcoholic hepatitis, which is characterized by inflammation of the organ. There is no exact threshold of alcohol consumption that leads to the condition. “Three standard drinks – so 45 grams of alcohol per day is generally what’s required. It may be a little more than that for men and maybe a little less than that for women,” explains UTMB’s Shehzad Merwat.

The health care industry publication recently published their “100 hospital and health system chief medical officers to know” in 2020. UTMB’s Gulshan Sharma was included on the list.

Reports indicate that the coronavirus known as 2019-nCoV is hitting older people the hardest. UTMB’s Vineet Menachery explains this is typical of the coronaviruses. “Age and your condition in life will really drive your susceptibility. You may be in your 40s, but if you have these chronic health conditions, you’re going to be more susceptible, just like you see with flu,” said Menachery.

In Asian countries, it is common to see residents on the street wearing masks, even before the novel coronavirus surfaced. According to Victor Sierpina if you want to protect yourself, handwashing is a much better option than wearing a mask.

In this reports from Houston’s CBS affiliate UTMB’s James Le Duc discusses efforts undertaken at the Galveston National Laboratory to better understand the novel coronavirus.

Victor Sierpina opines that life can be short and while we may look at the past, we should remain optimistic about the future. According to Sierpina, life may not be perfect, and we may not be perfect, but with optimism as our underlying attitude, life is good.

The Galveston County Daily News, January 29, 2020 - UTMB scientists featured on popular national podcast - Research study volunteers needed - UTMB scientists ready for research on new coronavirus

In their regular column, Megan Berman and Richard Rupp discuss pneumonia vaccines and why high-risk individuals should receive one or both, Prevnar-13 and Pneumovax.

Reporting on efforts already underway to develop a vaccine against the new Chinese coronavirus. UTMB’s Vineet Menachery is a story contributor looking back at the SARS outbreak. Menachery’s work focuses on coronavirus vaccines.

Public health officials in the Houston metropolitan area feel they are prepared to deal with the coronavirus threat, partly due to their proximity to UTMB’s Galveston National Laboratory. “There’s a lot of reasons why it’s a concern, but the world id doing its best to control it,” said UTMB’s James Le Duc. “In the past two decades, the U.S. government has invested heavily in preparedness issues.”

In this interview with Italian media, Thomas Ksiazek discusses efforts being made at UTMB to develop a vaccine to fight the novel coronavirus. “The time to obtain this new vaccine is very fast from a scientific point of view, but the regulatory phase could take a few years,” said Ksiazek.

As the coronavirus, now called 2019-nCoV, continues to spread Chinese scientists sequenced the viral genome and made it pubic. Now researchers around the globe are examining the sequence as part of an effort to understand the disease. “It really is an amazing feat that they got these sequences out as quickly as they did,” says UTMB’s Vineet Menachery.