By Jim Morris
Public Health Watch While still jarringly high, U.S. suicide rates fell in 2019 and again in 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last month. The year-over-year rate declined by 3 percent overall, falling by 8 percent among women and 2 percent among men. But there were some stark outliers. Notably, suicides among Latino men increased by nearly 6 percent.
What’s Going On?
Plenty, it turns out. Problems that existed before COVID-19 got even worse during the pandemic, health advocates and providers say, including substance abuse, job loss, poor access to care and the stigma of mental illness in the Latino community. “[Latino men] weren’t getting much help to begin with,” said Fredrick Sandoval, executive director of the New ...
When María Elena Bottazzi left Honduras, she never expected to one day be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Bottazzi is a microbiologist at the Texas’s Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Tex. She, along with Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor Medicine, created the Corbevax vaccine for COVID-19. They wanted to create a unique vaccine that was patent-free and cheaper to produce than the vaccines already on the market. “Peter and I aspire to benefit people, which is why we created a vaccine for the poorest communities in the world. The team that we have built shares the same interest in promoting public health and, obviously, learning at the same time,” Bottazzi said, according to NBC Latino. Bottazzi and Hotez were ...
Latinos are a dynamic, diverse, rising population. But cancer threatens the future health of the U.S. Latino population. This is why our Salud America! team at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at UT Health San Antonio created a new video, "Latino Cancer: ¿Sabía Usted? (Did You Know?)," to describe the state of Latino cancer disparities and highlight the inequities behind them. The video debuted at the 2022 Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos conference. "The conference helped focus on a key underlying issue – health equity. Health equity is where everyone has a fair, just opportunity to be their healthiest," said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, leader of the conference and director of Salud America! and the IHPR. "True change starts when we focus on solving ...
Obesity Care Week 2022 (#OCW2022) is here! From Feb. 27 to March 5, 2022, Obesity Care Week is an annual public awareness effort to end weight bias, as well as raise awareness, educate and advocate for a better world for people living with obesity. Also, World Obesity Day is March 4, 2022. Our Salud America! Latino health equity team at UT Health San Antonio is happy to serve as an OCW2022 Champion to support this awareness week. "Unlike most other diseases, obesity is one that continues to be stigmatized and those impacted struggle to receive any care in many cases, let alone adequate care," said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio and a leading health disparities researcher. It’s time to change the way we care for obesity, and OCW2022 ...
Omega 3 fatty acids are essential nutrients. Studies show omega 3 fish oil—which contains both docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid—may help lower blood pressure, slow the development of plaque in the arteries, and reduce the likelihood of heart attack and stroke. With the rising popularity of omega 3 fish oil supplements, researchers are conducting clinical trials to test their benefits for other health issues. This is why Dr. Andrew Brenner and his team at UT Health San Antonio are seeking volunteers for his clinical trial to explore of how omega 3 fatty acids can impact postmenopausal breast cancer patients. “Fish oil supplements with omega 3 fatty acids have been shown to stop or slow down the growth and development of breast cancer cells in ...
Forty years after the virus was discovered, an HIV vaccine is finally in development. Moderna and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) are launching the first clinical trial for an HIV vaccine. “The search for an HIV vaccine has been long and challenging, and having new tools in terms of immunogens and platforms could be the key to making rapid progress toward an urgently needed, effective HIV vaccine," said Mark Feinberg, president and CEO of IAVI, according to a press release. This vaccine is particularly impactful for Latinos and other people of color, who are disproportionately affected by HIV and AIDS and are underrepresented in clinical trials. Learn more about the HIV vaccine clinical trial, how Latinos are impacted by HIV/AIDS, and how clinical trials can ...
COVID-19 vaccination is often deterred by misinformation, from conspiracy theories to exaggerated side effects on social media. Vaccine misinformation is potent among Latinos due to lack of reliable information that is culturally relevant or in Spanish, along with little government outreach. That is why UT Health San Antonio researchers studied a new type of advertisement on Facebook to push people to get vaccinated. They used video testimonial ads of Latino peer role models, like Rosa Herrera, who tout the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine, while providing psychological inoculation by acknowledging misinformation, rejecting it, and receiving the vaccine. Compared to generic vaccine promotion ads from the CDC, the Latino peer model ads yielded a significantly higher rate of ...
Healthcare leaders say that the COVID-19 vaccine is the clearest path to end of the pandemic. However, vaccine misinformation spread on social media stands in the way. Many misinformation spreaders target Latino and Black communities, which have historical mistrust and skepticism in government. To combat this increasing threat, the Public Good Projects (PGP) and the New York State Health Foundation (NYSHF) created Project VCTR (Vaccine Communication Tracking & Response). Project VCTR helps track misinformation across different media sources to measure the public’s confidence in the vaccine. Currently, negative attitudes about the vaccine are declining after a strong rise in fall of 2021, according to the dashboard. They produce dashboards and track data affecting ...
COVID-19 continues to burden communities of color, particularly low-income and Latino immigrant populations. Often, these communities have fewer resources and need support and health education to fight COVID-19. That’s why groups like the COVID Community Corps (CCC) were started. “It’s about getting into those really hard-to-reach populations and communities and bringing the information in a very linguistic and culturally competent manner,” said Nayeli Salazar de Noguera, the program outreach manager for the CCC. Through canvassing and educational initiatives, the CCC aims to reach underserved communities and increase public confidence in and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. Learn how they are building vaccine confidence in low-vaccinated parts of New Jersey!
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