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Category: Health

Attorney who backs election decertification enters Attorney General race to investigate doctors who won’t prescribe ivermectin

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Patrick Remington, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Preventive Medicine Residency Program, said doctors who do not prescribe ivermectin to COVID-19 patients are upholding the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm to patients by making decisions according to the consensus of available credible medical research.

“We strive to get it right. We do the best job we can to do no harm and this is an example that would be unthinkable to me to ask a physician to prescribe a medicine that is at best, ineffective and at worst, harmful,” Remington said. “There are valid debates about the best ways to treat serious illnesses and science is iterative, that as we go along we learn by experimentation, we learn by carefully conducted research.”

Mysterious wave of COVID toes still has scientists stumped

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National Geographic

Lisa Arkin saw more swollen, discolored toes during the early months of the pandemic than she had during her entire career. Arkin, a pediatric dermatologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, treated just a couple of patients with temporary skin lesions called pernio, or chilblains, each year. But in April 2020, when COVID-19 cases first surged, she saw 30 chilblain patients.

UW Health given top score by Human Rights Campaign for LGBTQ+ care

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WISC-TV 3

The hospital was designated an “LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equity Leader,” after earning a top score of 100 by the foundation’s Healthcare Equality Index. The index measures performance in Foundational Policies and Training in LGBTQ+ Patient-Centered Care, LGBTQ+ Patient Services and Support, Employee Benefits and Policies, and Patient and Community Engagement.

UW researcher wants to know: What does your dog like to watch on TV?

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Wisconsin Public Radio

A new project from a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison aims to answer the question: What do dogs like to watch on television?

She’s asking dog owners to contribute to her research by sharing their own pups’ preferences.

The survey is part of a larger and more ambitious research project by Freya Mowat, a veterinary ophthalmologist and professor at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, to learn more about how canine vision degrades over time and what factors contribute to it. That research could have implications for the treatment of human eyesight, as well.

Was Everyone Really Just Doing Drugs In Regency England Like They Are In ‘Bridgerton’?

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Women's Health

Today, there are strict rules and laws that separate recreational and medical drug use. There are also plenty of drugs that are legal, and others that are illegal. But in Regency England, these boundaries didn’t exist. “The legal structures just weren’t in place,” says Lucas Richert, PhD, a historian of drugs and medicines at the University of Wisconsin—Madison School of Pharmacy.

Mental Health First Aid training for WI Ag Community set for April 12

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Wisconsin State Farmer

There is no doubt that farming can be extremely rewarding, yet also stressful and demanding. Various risk factors including weather, economic uncertainty, as well as, ever-evolving supply and demand changes, can take a toll on farmer’s mental health.

In order to address some of these issues, the University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension will be offering virtual and in-person educational programs to help the Wisconsin agricultural community identify and respond to a variety of behavioral health challenges.

After detecting bird flu in Wisconsin, poultry expert discusses transmission, safety steps

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Wisconsin Public Radio

After state agriculture officials confirmed the presence of bird flu in Wisconsin, one poultry management expert shared safety tips for poultry farmers and what risk exists to humans.

Ron Kean, a faculty associate and extension specialist in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, also explained what costs farmers can and cannot get covered if the flu hits their farm.

American Family Children’s Hospital nurses plead for more help in neonatal ICU

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The Capital Times

Place and other nurses said UW Health should work with the nurses union to address understaffing, overwhelming patient loads and high turnover rates that have stemmed from cost-cutting measures over the years. While the union contract expired in 2014, nurses at UW Health have sought to revive it since 2019.  UW Health administrators are also aware of the nurses’ grievances, but they argue the 2011 state law known as Act 10 — which eliminated collective bargaining rights for most public employees — leaves them with their hands tied.

Health Care — FDA panel to weigh more vaccine boosters

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The Hill

Corresponding research: Research led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine and the University of Tokyo, indicated that other antivirals such as Paxlovid, remdesivir and molnupiravir were effective against the BA.2 variant. Kawaoka’s research team found that AstraZeneca’s Evusheld was the most effective against the BA.2 variant out of the antibody treatments that were tested.

UW-Madison treats migraines without drugs or surgery

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CBS 58

A new procedure called “radiofrequency ablation” is bringing relief to people who suffer from migraine headaches. The procedure uses heat delivered via electrical stimulation through wires and probes to nerves in the head.

Dr. Alaa Abd-Elsayed, medical director, UW Health Pain Services and Pain Management Clinic, says with one visit, patients can see relief for months.

“Around a year for most of the patients we see. It can actually for some patients go for two years,” he said.

Before 2020, they had never worn masks. Now, they plan to wear them long into the future.

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Ajay Sethi, a professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he expects to see plenty of people continuing to wear masks long into the future. In addition to COVID-19, masks can help protect against other respiratory pathogens like rhinovirus, enterovirus and RSV, Sethi said.

“If you’re around somebody who’s coughing or sneezing, it may not be SARS-CoV-2,” he said. “So wearing a mask protects against all those things that spread by large droplets and to some degree, the aerosolized pathogens too.”

Patricia Téllez-Girón, professor of family medicine at UW-Madison, remembers occasionally seeing people wearing masks before 2020, especially while traveling. She remembers thinking that was unusual, and wondering if those people were really sick. Now, she’s changed her perspective.

“No, they were smart!” she said. “They already have learned what we just learned.”

The fight over chronic Lyme disease in Wisconsin

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Isthmus

If life had gone as planned, Maria Alice Lima Freitas would be in medical school, inspired by the career of her father, a surgeon who practiced in Brazil. But instead of changing careers, the 49-year-old therapist retired from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Researchers in Wisconsin continue to study the spread of black-legged “deer” ticks and the long-term impact of Lyme disease. In a recent presentation, Susan Paskewitz, a medical entomologist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, said ticks have “invaded our state entirely” and, as the climate warms, are marching into Canada.

Xia Lee, a tick biologist in Paskewitz’s lab, has studied the insects for more than a decade. Lee says Lyme-bearing ticks “are always born uninfected,” but they pick up infections as they feed on animal hosts.

Lee notes that Wisconsin never got the proper recognition as the site of the first case of the disease.

“We like to joke about it and say that Wisconsin was actually the first state where Lyme disease was detected,” he says, “but we never got the glory for naming (it).”

The history of Lyme disease has a Wisconsin chapter. It’s still being written.

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Wisconsin Watch

Quoted: Over the past three decades, Susan Paskewitz, a medical entomologist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, has documented the growing prevalence of ticks in Wisconsin.

Paskewitz found that deer ticks, also called black-legged ticks, have moved steadily from northwest to southwest, and then into the central and eventually slowly into the eastern and southern Wisconsin.

“They invaded our state entirely,” Paskewitz said in a 2021 Wednesday Nite @ The Lab episode. She said the regeneration of forests decimated by logging in the early 1900s and rebounding of the deer population are the main drivers in Wisconsin. Paskewitz said warming temperatures caused by climate change are expected to lengthen the tick season and accelerate their northward march into Canada.

UW System student health worker initiative gets funding boost

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WisPolitics

A UW System initiative will provide incentives to twice as many student health care workers with additional funding from the Wisconsin Partnership Program.

This UW School of Medicine and Public Health program is providing $500,000 for the effort, doubling the total funding for the incentive program that was announced in December 2021. The state Department of Health Services provided the initial funds.

James Thomson, renowned UW scientist who brought the world human embryonic stem cells, to retire in July

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

James Thomson, the University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist who first isolated and grew human embryonic stem cells, inspiring a generation of researchers, and igniting a furious ethical debate that he would later help resolve, will be retiring in July after more than 30 years with the school.

Return to pre-pandemic normalcy not yet on the horizon for many immunocompromised Americans

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ABC News

“I see the devastating effects of this viral infection every day as it leads to death and disability of my patients who were previously leading healthy, active lives,” Dr. Jeannina Smith, medical director of the transplant and immunocompromised host service at the University of Wisconsin, told ABC News. “Omicron was not mild for our patients.”

24 Therapist Tips for Finding Hope in Dark Times

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The Healthy

It’s hard enough to deal with one of those—but when there are so many stressful matters orbiting at once? It’s a lot, says Victoria Egizio, PhD, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics in Madison. “The Russian invasion of the Ukraine is now on top of all of the other anxiety-provoking events that have been unfolding in the world during the last couple of years,” Dr. Egizio tells The Healthy.

Listen Live The Ideas Network Program Schedule Program Notes NPR News & Music Network Program Schedule Music Playlists All Classical Network Program Schedule Music Playlists WPR The Morning Show Coronavirus In Wisconsin RN Sara Nystrom prepares to enter a patient’s room in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit Registered nurse Sara Nystrom, of Townshend, Vt., prepares to enter a patient’s room in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, in Lebanon, N.H., Jan. 3, 2022. The omicron variant has caused a surge of new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and many hospitals are not only swamped with cases but severely shorthanded because of so many employees out with COVID-19. Steven Senne/AP Photo Don’t leave immunocompromised patients behind, Wisconsin doctor pleads

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Wisconsin Public Radio

With mask mandates lifting once again and some itching to return to normal, the head of UW Hospital’s Transplant Infectious Disease Program called for continued vigilance on behalf of her immunocompromised patients.

Dr. Jeannina Smith, who also teaches in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Medicine, said her patients are “very valuable, vital (and) important members of our society.”

Nonetheless, they are particularly susceptible to COVID-19 as Wisconsin approaches the end of its second full year in the pandemic.

UW Community Members Mobilize Over COVID Safety Concerns

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WORT FM

An array of faculty, staff, undergraduate employees, and University of Wisconsin community members gathered over a Zoom call this Tuesday for mobilization around COVID safety and policy on campus. The meeting was organized in direct response to a University announcement that it would allow its indoor mask mandate to expire on March 11th, which falls a day before the school’s spring break. The expiration will take place 10 days after the rest of Dane County, which announced the end of required indoor masking effective at midnight on March 1st.

Traffic deaths keep rising in Wisconsin amid rash of speeding, reckless driving

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Andrea Bill, assistant director of the Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which analyzes state traffic data, said people in all regions of the state are speeding more.

Researchers first tracked an increase in speeding when the pandemic shutdowns in early 2020 caused dramatic reductions in the number of cars on the road. By mid-2021, Bill said, volume in Wisconsin was nearly back to pre-pandemic levels — but average speeds hadn’t come down.

“What I thought would happen was that when the traffic came back to normal, we would see the speeds go back down to where they were before 2020,” Bill said. “And we did not see that in 2021.”

A new COVID study that examined Wisconsin, Seattle, and San Francisco could help predict where caseloads are likely to be the highest

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Brian Levy is an assistant professor of sociology at George Mason University. Karl Vachuska is a research assistant in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their study looked at data in Wisconsin, San Francisco and Seattle.

UW Health nurses rally for union recognition

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WKOW-TV 27

UW Health nurses have not had a union since their previous contract expired in 2014. They’ve been trying to change that for two years and rallied Thursday across from American Family Children’s Hospital in support of the effort.

Fetal heartbeat bill in Legislature divides abortion foes, political candidates

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Noted: Research from the National Institutes of Health and the University of Wisconsin-Madison indicates a proposed ban on abortion after six weeks could affect women who don’t know they’re pregnant yet, preventing them from getting an abortion later after pregnancy is confirmed through a test.

“I think it’s important for policymakers to know there may be essentially no time between when a person discovers they are pregnant, the missed period, and fetal cardiac activity,” said Jenna Nobles, professor of sociology at the UW-Madison. “It’s particularly true for people with unpredictable cycles, which is more common in young people, Hispanic people and people with common medical conditions.”

White House Isn’t Rushing to Copy Democratic Governors’ New ‘COVID-Normal’

Posted on
The Daily Beast

“The White House and CDC are in a no-win position,” said David O’Connor, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Wisconsin. “Not only is there not a one-size-fits-all solution that they can recommend to the entire country, but there are a spectrum of reasonable options given a receding Omicron surge in late winter.”

Endometriosis can be isolating, says one woman, who published a memoir to support others with this ‘invisible illness’

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: “The sad truth of endometriosis is that very often young girls who complain of pain or painful periods are told that everyone’s periods are painful; just live with it,” said Bala Bhagavath, UW Health’s fertility clinic’s medical director of Generations of Fertility Care.

UW-Madison mask mandate to end March 12

Posted on
The Daily Cardinal

Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced Wednesday that the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s current on-campus mask mandate will be extended to March 11.  The decision follows an announcement made earlier in the day by the UW system that all on-campus mask mandates will be allowed to expire in early March.

UW Health requiring COVID-19 booster shots for staff, volunteers

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

UW Health providers, staff, students and volunteers are required to get a COVID-19 vaccine booster by May 2, the organization said Wednesday. About 96% of staff are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, following a requirement announced last year. UW Health and UnityPoint Health-Meriter announced vaccination requirements in August after SSM Health, including St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, did so in June 2021.

 

UW-Madison professor says signs of fraud in prenatal care coordination companies are ‘horrific’

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who studies reproductive health said the findings of a recent news story highlighting potential fraud among Milwaukee’s prenatal care coordination companies were “really atrocious and really horrific.”

Tiffany Green, an assistant professor in the departments of Population Health Sciences and Obstetrics and Gynecology, specializes in racial disparities within reproductive health.

New COVID-19 omicron subvariant found in Dane County

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

“We can’t use a crystal ball to see what COVID-19 will bring us next, but we do know the now approved vaccines for COVID-19 work against these variants when we are fully vaccinated,” Dr. Nasia Safdar, a UW Health infectious disease specialists, said in a statement. “We can do our parts to prevent prolonging this pandemic by getting vaccinated and getting our booster shots.”

‘It doesn’t have to be this way’: How expanding paid leave could ease working parent woes, labor crunch

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Choosing day care doesn’t inherently harm a baby, but stress — whether related to the separation or worries about the quality or cost of care — can hinder their development, said Julie Poehlmann-Tynan, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of human development and family studies.

“Babies are often really sensitive to what’s going on,” she said.

Since babies require high-quality, lower-stress care, Poehlmann-Tynan said, policymakers should consider how best to support a child’s transition to family life.

New UW-Madison research shows hibernating squirrels rely on gut bacteria to recycle nitrogen, maintain muscle mass

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Wisconsin Public Radio

A new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison explains how hibernating animals use bacteria in their gut to maintain muscle density over the winter. The findings could lead to solutions for people with muscle-wasting disorders or astronauts headed on prolonged journeys into space.

Hannah Carey is a professor emeritus at UW-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine and an author of the study. She said scientists have known for years that ruminant animals, like cows and sheep, are able to recycle their own nitrogen as a way to build muscles while eating a low protein diet. Nitrogen is a vital building block of amino acids and proteins.