Public Health | Penn Today

Person kneeling on ground while their dog is vaccinated on a sidewalk in Peru, the medical workers are wearing PPE and working in a temporary plastic tent bubble to protect against COVID.

In Peru, a race to vaccinate dogs as two epidemics collide

A team of workers in Peru, led by Penn Medicine’s Ricardo Castillo-Neyra, led a two-month rabies vaccination campaign.

Big tobacco is coming for legal marijuana

Andy Tan of the Annenberg School for Communication and Shaleen Title of Ohio State University expressed concerns about tobacco companies’ involvement in the burgeoning legal cannabis industry. “The tragic public health consequences of cigarettes were exacerbated through sustained profit-driven predatory marketing practices and deregulatory efforts,” they wrote. “Instead of repeating that history, federal policy makers should work with tobacco control and state-level marijuana experts to prevent Big Tobacco 2.0.”

The power of architecture to address public health and environmental crises

Two new studies, one on UV sterilization in occupied rooms and another on radiative cooling, show how architecture can help create interior spaces that are both COVID-safe and energy-efficient.

New global structure needed for infectious disease control

Harvey Rubin of the Perelman School of Medicine co-wrote an op-ed about the structural changes needed to prepare society for future pandemics. “The currently inefficient international regime for infectious disease control requires a new overarching structure that will harmonize, integrate, and coordinate the existing relevant legal structures that deal with infectious disease issues,” they wrote.

Person wearing latex gloves pulling bed sheets out of a dryer.

Can a Penn epidemiologist prevent a bedbug-driven outbreak?

Epidemiologist Michael Z. Levy curbed a Chagas disease epidemic in Arequipa, Peru. Can he prevent an outbreak in Philadelphia?

Sign in grocery store windows indicating that SNAP is welcomed there.

WIC Child Nutrition Program saw enrollment grow after switch from paper vouchers

A Penn Medicine study finds electronic benefit cards are more user-friendly and encourage less stigma than paper vouchers.

The next stage of the vaccine drive: Persuading the hesitant

Alison Buttenheim of the School of Nursing spoke about how COVID-19 vaccine discourse may evolve during the next few months. While the public conversation is currently focused on vaccine scarcity, “pretty soon, I would say in four to six weeks, it’s going to be about finding people and persuading people,” she said.

Sixty percent of opioids unused after common procedures

A new Penn Medicine study of how text messaging could inform opioid prescribing practices shows that 60% of opioids are left over after orthopaedic and urologic procedures.

Person smiling while wearing a face mask on Penn’s campus

MaskUPenn: A year of mask-wearing in pictures

Following CDC guidelines and campus mandates, the Penn community put their best face coverings forward for a masked photo series.

Black men in Philly are more likely to experience poor mental health after severe injury, a new study shows

Sara Jacoby of the School of Nursing co-led a study about how returning, or not returning, to work after a traumatic injury impacted the mental health of Black men living in Philadelphia. “If your economic stability, your financial opportunity is contingent on work, which it is for many of us, then not returning to work is an additional barrier to healing … because you’re further stressed by the inability to make your day-to-day work,” said Jacoby.

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