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Infectious Diseases
Monkeypox: What is known and unknown
The current outbreak of monkeypox is showing no sign of slowing. Stuart Isaacs of the Perelman School of Medicine, an expert on poxviruses, sheds light on the disease, its prevention and treatment, and what to watch for this fall.
Severe COVID-19 increases risk of life-threatening blood clots
A new Penn study finds the clotting condition, venous thromboembolism, was more common in those hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to those hospitalized with influenza.
A success story from Southern Africa
The Botswana-UPenn Partnership celebrates 20 years of medical, scholarly, and educational progress.
From a pandemic, scientific insights poised to impact more than just COVID-19
Pivoting to study SARS-CoV-2, many scientists on campus have launched new research projects that address the challenges of the pandemic but also prepare us to confront future challenges.
It takes a village, especially during a global pandemic
A Penn LDI and Penn Population Aging Research Center team tracks behavior and attitudes in Malawi during COVID-19’s first wave.
In Peru and the U.S., considering the factors that drive public health
By comparing and contrasting the two nations’ approaches to controlling infectious diseases, students in Parallel Plagues deepened their appreciation of how these diseases emerge, cause harm, and might be effectively controlled.
Access to HIV self-tests in Kenya
Marking World AIDS Day, Harsha Thirumurthy of the Perelman School of Medicine offers four takeaways from his research exploring the impact access to free HIV self-tests had on women in Kenya and on the importance of HIV awareness.
A hub for zoonotic disease research
The new Institute for Infectious and Zoonotic Diseases, launched by the School of Veterinary Medicine, leans on Penn’s strengths in immunology and infectious disease to prepare for emerging threats to animal and human health.
How HIV infection shrinks the brain’s white matter
Researchers from Penn and CHOP detail the mechanism by which HIV infection blocks the maturation process of brain cells that produce myelin, a fatty substance that insulates neurons.
A quick pivot turns an infectious disease class into timely education
Students in David Roos’ upper-level biology course had been studying pandemics. Now they get to learn in real time how public health scientists attempt to understand COVID-19.
In the News
The mRNA miracle workers
Nobel laureates Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman of the Perelman School of Medicine appear on “Sunday Morning” to discuss their careers, their mRNA research, and the COVID-19 vaccines.
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Paul Offit looks back on COVID-19, misinformation, and how public health lost the public’s trust in new book
“Tell Me When It’s Over,” a new book by Paul Offit of the Perelman School of Medicine, chronicles the initial years of the COVID-19 pandemic and the mishaps of public health agencies. Recent surveys by the Annenberg Public Policy Center find that mistrust of vaccines has continued to grow through last fall.
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Review of COVID death stats finds likely undercount in official numbers
A paper co-authored by Penn researchers found that COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. were likely undercounted in official statistics during the first 30 months of the pandemic.
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How long does the flu last? What to know
According to the University of Pennsylvania Health System, flu symptoms usually appear two to three days after contact with the virus.
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‘Holding our breath’: Philadelphia officials respond to measles outbreak from day care
Paul Offit of the Perelman School of Medicine explains why measles is so much more infectious than flu.
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Godfather of mRNA vaccines reveals plans to immunize people against cancer years before tumors strike to ‘the disease from ever appearing’
Drew Weissman of the Perelman School of Medicine, who won the Nobel Prize for mRNA vaccines along with Katalin Karikó, is researching an mRNA vaccine against cancer.
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