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Category: Health

U.S. now allowing Wisconsin hygiene lab, Milwaukee Health Department to do their own coronavirus testing

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin is now conducting its own tests for the new coronavirus, but the state has yet to see its second case. As of Monday, 18 people in the state have tested negative and test results for two people remain pending.

The testing will be done at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and at the Milwaukee Health Department, health officials said. Test samples previously were sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Tom Still: Can Wisconsin help combat coronavirus?

Wisconsin State Journal

At UW-Madison, scientists are working to build non-human primate models to test medical countermeasures such as vaccines and therapeutics. David O’Connor from the School of Medicine and Public Health and Thomas Friedrich from the School of Veterinary Medicine are a big part of that team, which is hoping to work with others around the world.

Coronavirus impact on 401k and retirement investments

NBC-15

Quoted: A U.W. Health doctor says a person’s risk of catching the virus here in Wisconsin remains low. “Generally, people will be symptomatic for about a week or so, or less and then they start to recover, but the worst part is probably the first two or three days of the infection,” Medical Director for Infection Prevention Dr. Nasia Safdar said.

Spread of coronavirus in U.S. could close schools, shut down public gatherings, force people to work remotely

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Ajay K. Sethi, associate professor of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was more certain about the possibility.

“Right now there has been confirmed asymptomatic transmission,” he said. “We just don’t know how much of the spread is being driven by people who are asymptomatic.”

UW Health nurse residency graduation

WKOW-TV 27

Nineteen nurses completed their residency program at UW Health. Now they are ready to start their full time nursing careers. UW-Health’s program is just one of 31 accredited nurse resident programs in the country.

Transplanting the Immune System: Easier on Patients?

KSAT

In 27 years of doing transplants, Dixon Kaufman, MD, PhD, FACS, Ray D. Owen Professor and Chair Division of Transplantation Department of Surgery School of Medicine and Public Health at University of Wisconsin- Madison has never done one like Okey’s. Her sister’s kidney was a perfect match, but then both women took part in a second pioneering transplant to give Barb her sister’s immune system.

She Didn’t Want a Pelvic Exam. She Received One Anyway.

The New York Times

Sarah Wright, a science teacher in Madison, Wis., said she was given a diagnosis of extreme vulvar sensitivity after a surgery in 2009. She wondered how an operation performed through incisions in her abdomen could have affected her sexual organs, and concluded that either a uterine manipulator was used or a pelvic exam was conducted without her knowledge. So when scheduling another operation with University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health’s hospital system in 2018, she asked to draft her own consent contract.

The Novel Coronavirus And How Isolation And Quarantine Authority Works In Wisconsin

WisContext

In Dane County, which has a population of international students from China mostly affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, public health officials declined to comment on any action plans that may include the use of quarantine or isolation orders  — a Public Health Madison & Dane County spokesperson cited a lack of time amid pressures to monitor the 2019-nCoV outbreak as it unfolds.

Wisconsin’s first case of new coronavirus from China is resident of Dane County

Wisconsin State Journal

The person returned to Dane County Regional Airport after a trip to Beijing Jan. 30 and went directly to UW Hospital’s emergency room, officials said. The person was evaluated and tested in the ER but not admitted to the hospital because the symptoms — which include fever, cough and shortness of breath — were relatively mild, officials said.

Public awareness helps curb epidemic, rumors

Global Times

Judith Walzer Leavitt, the author of above-mentioned book, was a professor of the history of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She summarized the harsh experience of establishing the public health system in Milwaukee and described the process of citizens gaining knowledge of disease prevention.

Could the coronavirus scare have been avoided? One leading health authority thinks so.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: “I think his perspective is overlooking all of the work that has been done on coronaviruses,” since SARS, said Robert N. Kirchdoerfer, assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“One of the challenges with designing vaccines for emerging viruses is that it is incredibly difficult to predict which virus is going to cause the next outbreak.”