Sascha Ellington, PhD
Epidemiologist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) CDC is encouraging people who are pregnant, trying to get pregnant now, or may become pregnant in the future to stay up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations. Latinas have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 with the second-highest rate of cases reaching over 65,000. Learn how COVID-19 vaccinations can provide additional peace of mind for you and your family during pregnancy.
Navigating COVID-19 and Pregnancy
Did you know people who are pregnant or were recently pregnant are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19 than people who are not pregnant? If you become sick with COVID-19 during pregnancy, you are more likely to experience preterm birth and stillbirth and might be at ...
Driving is a daily danger to American life. And it is getting more dangerous. More Americans died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2021 than any other year since 2005, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Additionally, pedestrian fatalities are up 13% and bicyclist fatalities are up 5% compared to 2020. These are lower rates than the European Union, which has seen traffic fatalities decrease since 2019. What is happening on American roads? Are drivers becoming worse? Are the sizing size of SUVs and passenger trucks – “megacars” – responsible? What about vehicle and road safety? Let’s explore the facts to find an answer.
Drivers and Traffic Fatalities
U.S. traffic fatality rate rose 10.5% from 2020 to 2021, a year after rising ...
Parents of babies across the US are struggling to feed their children due to a baby-formula shortage. The pain of the shortage is particularly felt among low-income families, such as Blacks and Latinos, who already suffer inequities in maternal and child health. The shortage began during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when America seemingly ran out of everything – from toilet paper to fresh produce. In late February 2022, a baby formula recall, which caused two infant deaths, worsened the shortage. In many states, including Texas and Tennessee, where infants depend on formula for more than half of their diet, formula is sold out in stores. For parents such as Yury Navas, an immigrant Latina mother in Maryland, providing formula for her child is especially ...
Substance abuse in the US is a public health problem that affects many people, including Latinos. Yet, Latinos are less likely than their White peers to get treatment they need. There is a new investigational treatment for substance abuse —the use of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), a non-invasive procedure that uses magnetic pulses to temporarily stimulate areas of the brain. Fortunately, you can make a difference by representing Latinos in the Stimulus Research Study, a clinical trial at UT Health San Antonio and other sites that will help researchers learn if the use of rTMS can help people reduce or stop their cocaine or methamphetamine use. “The rTMS clinical trial and others like it hope to develop and apply new treatments that work for Latinos ...
The COVID-19 saga continues as the virus continues to mutate, and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) identify new subvariants of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The CDC is studying a new subvariant, called BA.2.12.1, to determine how it spreads and how well existing treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 work against it. “[BA.2.12.1 and other subvariants of Omicron] are more contagious with more immune escape, and they are driving a lot of the increases in infection that we’re seeing across the nation right now,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, White House Covid-19 response coordinator, according to Vox. Latinos, who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 hardships, are still struggling to recover from the initial hit of the ...
You may be wearing PPE on your face right now. A mask is a common form of PPE, or “personal protective equipment,” as are respirators, gowns, gloves and eye protection frequently worn by frontline healthcare workers. These all help protect the wearer – you! – from germs that can make people sick. But they have a second important function, too. “So, the unique thing about PPE in healthcare is that it actually serves two purposes, and both of those purposes are really important. One part is to protect you, but the other part is to protect your patient and coworkers from germs that you might be carrying,” said Dr. Abigail Carlson, an infectious diseases physician with the CDC, as part of CDC Project Firstline’s Inside Infection Control video series.
What is PPE and ...
Los latinos representan menos del 10% de los voluntarios en los estudios clínicos de cáncer (enlace en inglés). La falta de latinos en los estudios clínicos hace que sea más difícil para los investigadores encontrar tratamientos desarrollados específicamente para este grupo – que representa el 18.5% de la población de los Estados Unidos y una diversidad de culturas. Las doctoras Amelie G. Ramírez y Patricia Chalela de UT Health San Antonio identificaron barreras y estrategias para promover la representación latina en los estudios clínicos en un nuevo comentario (enlace en inglés) publicado en JCO Oncology Practice. Se necesitará más que simplemente aumentar el conocimiento sobre los estudios clínicos. "Para lograr la participación equitativa de los latinos y ...
Oncologists who identify as Latino remain highly underrepresented in the workforce, according to a new report from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Although the percentage of Latino hematologists/oncologists has risen slightly over the past decade, from 4.1% in 2008 to 4.7% in 2018, Latino participation decreases at nearly every step in the path to becoming an oncologist, according to ASCO. “As a result, [Latino] patients are deprived the benefits of a representative workforce, such as improved access, enhanced culturally and linguistically competent care, and minimization of health disparities,” wrote Dr. Gladys Rodriguez of the START Center for Cancer Care in San Antonio, and her colleagues, in a recent study in JCO Oncology Practice. Why is this a ...
Different viruses are spread in different ways. The main way that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, spreads between people is by respiratory droplets. “In this case, a ‘droplet’ doesn’t just mean water that you can see, like big raindrops or splashes in the sink or a pool,” 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. “These droplets we’re talking about are actually really tiny, and where they come from may surprise you.”
Where Do Respiratory Droplets Come From?
You might think that when you breathe out, all that comes out is air. But our breath contains water too, in the form of respiratory droplets. ...
