Sarita Lee 79 posts 0 comments

Federally funded gun violence research by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institute of Health (NIH) essentially was put to a complete stop by the Dickey Amendment when it was passed by the government in 1996. Since then, there has been gun violence research done by nonprofits and…

October 24th is World Polio Day. Even though the number of Polio cases has been reduced through eradication efforts to the last 1%, there are specific challenges to address in complete eradication. Several professors from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine answer questions about…

Intimate partner homicide is large issue in the United States that does not seem to be better; in fact, the rates have been increasing. Of all the female homicide victims in the U.S., about half of them are killed by an intimate partner, someone who they previously were or currently are dating. …

Eastern equine encephalitis, generally referred to as its abbreviation EEE, generally has about 7 cases yearly in the United States. However, there have already been 30 cases in 2019. Humans cannot catch it from another human - humans catch the disease when a mosquito bites a horse infected with…

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) had only a few cases last week, but then had 10 confirmed cases over the weekend. The outbreak is ongoing and still declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a public health emergency of international concern. One concern is…

Companies that sell fitness tracking devices marketed the idea that taking 10,000 steps a day is optimal for our health. However, a study shows that health outcomes do generally improve as the number of steps increase in the participating population, however, the outcomes seem to be the same above…

The CDC hosts a website, FluSight, where projections can be submitted real-time during the flu season; Carnegie Mellon has consistently contributed some of the most accurate forecasts and the CDC just granted them $3 million to continue and expand their research. This funding will be used to…

The vaccination for the flu is changed every year; each flu season presents a slightly different strand which requires a different vaccination. There is a current push for scientific research to create a universal flu vaccination, a single vaccination that would cover many, or most, flu strains. …

Research around probiotics, often described as the “good” bacteria of our digestive systems, is advancing with the future goal of creating pills that are optimal in aiding nutrient retention. Malnutrition is one of the major global health inequalities, but it often is overlooked and is not…

Improving your food choices is definitely an important aspect of living a healthier life; however, it can go too far. Being too strict about what you are eating, like being extremely strict about a specific diet, can mean missing out on many important nutrients, potentially leading to malnutrition.…

A new study done by researchers in the United States and Denmark suggests that there may be a correlation between early and continued exposure to air pollution and higher rates of specific mental and psychiatric disorders. It is important to note that this does not automatically mean causation -…

There has been a demonstrated need for more research about vaping and e-cigarettes, especially with more than 100 people just recently experiencing serious lung complications that are potentially linked to vaping and e-cigarettes. While it is important to note that this is a pilot study,…

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health workers and authorities have vaccinated over 200,000 people with the developing Ebola vaccine, named V920 and produced by Merck & Co Inc. Developing the Ebola vaccine has been further motivated by the ongoing outbreak in DRC and the…

In reaction to the increase in mass shootings in the United States many sources, such as politicians and news outlets, have been quick to connect gun violence with mental illness. Claiming over and over again that these two are linked can often cause the “illusory truth effect,” where people…