PITTWIRE - When a mysterious illness suddenly emerged in his Brazilian hometown, IDM researcher ERNESTO MARQUES mobilized with colleagues to decode its unknowns. The work may help infectious-disease researchers stop or stall new epidemics. His story begins on page 18.
The Telehealth Appalachian AIDS Education and Training Center Project, led by IDM's LINDA FRANK, provides web-based HIV education, training, clinical guidelines, and resources to Appalachian community health centers. Frank has worked to increase knowledge and awareness about HIV disease in underserved communities in the hope of preventing discrimination and delivering more care to those who need it.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL - It has been two years since Brazil’s northeast was hit with the public-health crisis that left babies born with CZS and set off alarm bells in the global health community. Yet experts continue to grapple with big questions. “We can’t really tell if what happened here was replicated or not in other areas of Brazil or Latin America because we don’t really know how many women were exposed,” said IDM’s ERNESTO MARQUES, who is con...
WPXI - "We've got to increase public health awareness of addiction. A lot of people think, 'It's not my family, it's not me, it's not my community,' and we know that it can be anybody." IDM's LINDA FRANK talks to NIGHTTalk about opioid addiction in Pittsburgh and around the country.
The following four individuals will be inducted into the Omicron chapter of the Delta Omega Honorary Society at the Graduate School of Public Health, recognizing merit and encouraging further excellence in, and devotion to, public health work:
Nancy W. Glynn (EPI '94), faculty and alumna; Leah M. Lamonte (IDM '06), alumna; Natalie A. Solomon-Brimage (BCHS '06), alumna; Christopher A. Taylor (EPI '10), alumnus.
A round-table was held today with some amazing minds on the issue of polio eradication: Jennifer Jones, director of Rotary International; PETER SALK, IDM visiting professor and son of research pioneer Jonas Salk; and DONALD BURKE, school dean and University associate vice chancellor of global health. Rotary has been raising awareness that "We are this close to ending polio!" While all were in Pittsburgh, they shared amazing conversation about the...
NEW YORK TIMES - “I think it’s absolutely fair to say that had it not been for Dr. Youngner, the polio vaccine would not have come into existence,” PETER SALK president of the Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation and a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, said in an e-mail. He added, “The really important thing to recognize is that the development of the polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh was a t...
TRIB LIVE - In the U.S., there have been 5,264 Zika cases reported, with the vast majority in travelers returning from affected areas in other countries, says ERNESTO MARQUES, associate professor with Pitt Public Health and scientific director of CURA ZIKA, an international alliance with counterparts in Brazil to help fundraising for research into the virus. Learn more about Cura Zika at www.publichealth.pitt.edu/curazika.
NEW YORK TIMES - Determining why one twin becomes infected in the womb while the other does not may illuminate how Zika crosses the placenta, how it enters the brain, and whether any genetic mutations make a fetus more resistant or susceptible to Zika infection. Perhaps the virus entered through a weak spot in one placenta’s membrane, said ERNESTO MARQUES, an infectious disease expert at Pitt Public Health and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Recif...
A new study represents an important advance toward better treatments and even a cure. “The immune system stays activated, angry, upset and inflamed despite current treatments, and that’s not good,” said study leader JOHN MELLORS of infectious diseases and microbiology. The research, involving various research centers including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, counters the idea “that inflammation and immune-cell activati...
Dozens of Pitt Public Health grads from the capital area gathered at Penn Social during the 2017 ASPPH annual meeting, joining Dean Burke and host faculty for hearty conversations and refreshments. If the forecast of snow scared you away, we missed you! Access our photo albums anytime at www.publichealth.pitt.edu/flickr.
NEW YORK TIMES - In the impoverished northeast, devoted parents live around the needs of children whose grave disabilities are only beginning to be understood. “These babies, most of them or all of them, they’re going to live very long lives, you can keep them alive a long time, and they will need assistance from someone 24 hours a day,” said ERNESTO MARQUES, an infectious disease expert at the University of Pittsburgh and the Oswaldo Cruz Founda...
INFECTIOUS DISEASE ADVISOR - Work of study co-author and IDM professor JOHN MELLORS reported that different clonal virus populations can be recovered from the two cell types. The findings suggest that inducible virus production may be a good marker of the latent infectious reservoir in both cell types. Identifying the sources of latent HIV and developing tools to measure improvements in therapies are essential for clinicians and their patients.
TRIBLIVE - “The eradication of polio has been tantalizingly close for years now,” said Dean DONALD BURKE.... IDM visiting professor PETER SALK adds, “When polio is ultimately eradicated, it will be something the University of Pittsburgh and Pittsburghers in general can be proud of. The University played a major role in something that will be earthshaking.”
Before that milestone is achieved, Jonas Salk's injectable form of the vaccine must be ...