U.S. Latinos continue to deal with a heavy burden of COVID-19. Even if they don’t feel sick, a Latino or any person who is infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can spread the virus to others. But how does that spread happen?
How Viruses Spread
Even when you have a mild infection, there is virus in your nose, throat, and lungs. Virus particles can spread through respiratory droplets that come out when you talk, breathe, cough, or blow air out of your nose or mouth. When you release respiratory droplets, they can land on someone’s eyes, nose, or mouth, or someone can breathe them into their respiratory tract. If this happens, the virus in the droplets can infect them. Respiratory droplets can also fall on surfaces. If someone touches that surface ...
By 2030, 40% of Alzheimer’s patients in the U.S. will be Latino or Black. However, Latinos make up less than 1% of participants in National Institutes of Health clinical trials. Clinical trials are studies that help researchers learn more to help slow, manage, and treat Alzheimer’s and cancer for current and future family members. Without Latino volunteers for clinical trials, the benefits may miss this group. With Compadre CART at the Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s & Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio participants have the opportunity to help an underrepresented, high-risk group maintain independence with aging. To participate, contact Luis Serranorubio of the research team at 210-450-8447.
Compadre CART Study Goals
To learn more about why ...
SARS-CoV-2 is the official scientific name of the virus that causes the disease COVID-19. When we get infected with SARS-CoV-2, we can get sick with COVID-19, which stands for Coronavirus Disease 2019. When you are sick with COVID-19, you may have fever, chills, cough, difficulty breathing, and other symptoms.
How We Use the Terms SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19
COVID-19 is the term we most often use to talk about the pandemic. We use SARS-CoV-2 when we talk about the virus and what it does in the body to make people sick. “In healthcare, you may see SARS-CoV-2 on test results, which are often recorded by the official name of the virus,” said Dr. Abigail Carlson, an infectious diseases physician with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), as part of CDC ...
Update: On Sept. 29, 2022 the US Department of Education updated its loan forgiveness plan. Privately held federal student loans must have been consolidated before September 29, 2022 to be eligible for debt relief. CNN reports that around 770,000 borrowers will be impacted by this update, which comes the same day six states sued President Biden over the forgiveness plan. President Biden made history in August 2022 when he announced his student loan forgiveness plan. Certain details of the plan are still being ironed out, such as how much the plan will cost the federal government and taxpayers. Nevertheless, college students and graduates across the nation are breathing a sigh of relief, as many of them will qualify for loan forgiveness.
What Does the Student Loan Forgiveness ...
Stress is a grim reality for many Latinas after breast cancer. Survivors deal with health, fitness, finance, discrimination, and social challenges that reduce their quality of life and boost their risk of new or recurring cancers. That is why Drs. Amelie G. Ramirez, Daniel Carlos Hughes, and Patricia Chalela at UT Health San Antonio will conduct a holistic intervention to improve Latina breast cancer survivors' physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, thanks to a new, three-year, $600,000 grant from Susan G. Komen. Researchers will recruit 70 breast cancer survivors, half of them Latinas. Over six months, they will get: therapeutic yoga with meditation
optional tailored exercise and diet counseling
real-time psycho-social support based on survivors’ motivational ...
Bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer in men and causes about 17,100 deaths annually in the US. About 75% of bladder cancer cases are non-muscle invasive. This means that the cancer affects the tissue lining of the inner surface of the bladder, but not the bladder muscle. While this type of bladder cancer is treatable, one of the most effective treatments for this disease – a tuberculosis vaccine – causes intolerable side effects for up to 84% of patients, which can prevent treatment completion. When treatments fail, the bladder may have to be removed, reducing the patient’s quality of life. However, a modified tuberculosis vaccine developed by Jordi B. Torrelles, PhD, a professor at Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio, could help treat non-muscle ...
Source control keeps germs from spreading by stopping them at their source before they can spread to other people. Source control is an important tool to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory infections in the healthcare setting. For COVID-19, source control focuses on covering your nose and mouth with a mask to keep your respiratory droplets out of the air. Masking applies to Latinos and any person with or without symptoms, because anyone infected with SARS-CoV-2 can be asymptomatic. This means they are not showing symptoms and may not be aware that they have the virus. In this case, even if they are asymptomatic, they can still spread the virus to others through respiratory droplets they make when talking, breathing, singing, sneezing, or coughing. “Masks ...
From merengue to salsa, dance and music are at the heart of the Latino community. Latin dance celebrates culture, history, family, and joyous occasions. Now Latin dance is proving to help the working memory of older Latinos. Latinos age 55 or older who participated in a culturally relevant Latin dance program for 8 months significantly improved their working memory, compared to other peers in a controlled group that attended educational workshops, according to a recent study by researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Let’s explore why Latin dance is so beneficial.
What Did the Latin Dance Study Explore?
The recent study examined changes in cognitive performance among over 330 middle-aged and older Latinos participating in the Balance and Activity in ...
Respirators are a common type of personal protective equipment (PPE) – but not the only one. Gowns, gloves, goggles, and face shields are other kinds of PPE that Latino and all frontline healthcare workers use to help the spread of germs and viruses, including the virus that causes COVID-19.
Gowns
In healthcare, gowns are worn over your work clothes to reduce transmission of germs. They make it easier to remove germs and body fluids that might get on you while you work. “Germs that get on your clothes can spread to you. But they can also spread to other surfaces and other people,” said Dr. Abigail Carlson, an infectious diseases physician with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), as part of CDC Project Firstline’s Inside Infection Control video series. ...
