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Category: Health

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.”

Wisconsin authorities taking precautionary measures against Coronavirus

Wisconsin State Journal

UW Health began asking patients in its emergency departments and urgent care settings for their travel history Friday afternoon. Those suspected of contracting the coronavirus will be masked and isolated in a private exam room. Officials said in a statement that UW Health had not identified any cases.

The Virtuous Midlife Crisis

Wall Street Journal

Quoted: “The midlife journey will be more difficult for a good chunk of them because of heightened problems of inequality,” says Carol Ryff, director of the Institute on Aging at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and principal investigator of a large study on midlife in the U.S. She pointed to a recent rise in “deaths of despair” among middle-aged adults driven in part by drug overdoses, alcohol abuse and suicide.

Autism’s genetic drivers may differ by sex

Spectrum News

Quoted: The findings support the idea that women can sustain a larger genetic hit than men without having autism, a phenomenon called the ‘female protective effect,’ says Donna Werling, assistant professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved in the work. But the mechanisms that might protect women are a mystery.

From service to science: NIH shifts focus of mentoring network aimed at boosting grantee diversity

Science

Quoted: “A growing body of evidence exists about how to create and sustain successful and inclusive mentoring relationships,” says Angela Byars-Winston, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin (UW), Madison, and chair of the committee that wrote the report. “We hope our report can catalyze [the] use of that evidence.”

US Medical Schools See Decline In Rural Students

Wisconsin Public Radio

The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health didn’t immediately have geographic data for students going through its Wisconsin Academy for Rural Medicine. The program started in 2008 and will graduate its 10th class this year.

This is what it’s like waking up during surgery

Inverse

Quoted: General anesthesia, in contrast, aims to do just that, creating an unresponsive drug-induced coma or controlled unconsciousness that is deeper and more detached from reality even than sleep, with no memories of any events during that period. As Robert Sanders, an anesthetist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, puts it: “We’ve apparently ablated this period of time from that person’s experience.”

UW Hospital Nurses Announce Union

Wisconsin Public Radio

In a letter to the board that oversees employee relations, the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics Authority (UWHCA), UW nurses contend that although bargaining rights were taken away under Act 10, the UWHCA Board can voluntarily recognize and confer with the newly-formed union to discuss terms and conditions of employment.

The workout drug

Knowable Magazine

Researchers are still working out what matters in this complex arena. Exercises that involve more muscle groups generate more IL-6, so full-body exercises like running have a greater anti-inflammatory effect than exercises that target just a few muscle groups, says Pedersen. And the benefits go away within a couple of days, suggesting that exercising frequently is important. “If it’s been 48 hours since you exercised, it’s time to do it again,” says Jill Barnes, an exercise physiologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Autism prevalence estimates for Catalonia, Iran highlight gaps in data

Spectrum News 1

“A weakness of the [Catalonia] study is lack of information on co-occurring conditions such as intellectual disability, and information about sociodemographic variables,” says Maureen Durkin, professor of population health sciences and pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved in either study