Disease Management

Is That Nursing Home Safe? Here's How To Find Out - 09/27/2018

That nursing home you just visited looks nice and clean. But how do you know it's not secretly a hotbed for infection and disease? A new tool from Kaiser Health News can help you, your patients, and their families know for sure.

The Lowdown on High Fitness Levels in Middle Age - 07/17/2018

New research from the Cooper Institute and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, both in Dallas, shows a strong relationship between fitness, depression, and death from heart disease.

Beating the Drum on CMV Prevention - 06/15/2018

CMV infection is preventable, and its effects on our tiniest patients are worth preventing. Join me in shouting it from the rooftops of social media and in the exam rooms.

Call in the Swat Team: Texas Tackling Vector-Borne Diseases - 06/05/2018

Just in time for summer, the June issue of Texas Medicine magazine takes an in-depth look at vector-borne diseases in the Lone Star State.

The State of Health in Texas - 04/24/2018

At the beginning of the 20th century, the major health threats to individual and community health in the United States were infectious diseases, injuries due to unsafe workplaces, diseases due to poor nutrition, and poor maternal and infant health. During the next 100-plus years, tremendous advances were made in longevity and health status. As the impact of certain historically significant diseases decreased, however, the pattern of public/population disease burden became dominated by chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma, and cancer. In Texas in 2015, chronic diseases made up the top four causes of death. Public health professionals are largely focused on identifying the risk factors for these chronic diseases via enhanced morbidity and mortality surveillance. In addition to health care providers and the health care sector, a cross-section of other stakeholders, including businesses, communities, and social services, must work collaboratively, creatively, a...

CDC: South Texas Saw Spike in Zika-Related Birth Defects - 02/01/2018

U.S. regions where Zika is most prevalent ― including South Texas ― saw a 21-percent jump in Zika-related birth defects in the last half of 2016 compared with the first part of that year, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  

Officials: Tuna Products Test Positive for Hepatitis A - 07/06/2017

Think back over the past two weeks. Have any of your patients displayed symptoms of hepatitis A after eating raw or undercooked tuna? If you answered yes, it’s possible that their tuna roll was contaminated with the hepatitis A virus.

Hepatitis C Screening, Treatment: A Public Health Priority - 11/01/2016

In the past two decades, cancer-related deaths in the United States have declined dramatically due to advances in prevention, early detection, and treatment. One notable exception, liver cancer, has had a 38-percent increase in incidence and a 56-percent increase in deaths in the past decade. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is the leading cause of hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of primary liver cancer. The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force has endorsed one-time screening of all Americans born from 1945 to 1965 (baby boomers) for HCV because 75 percent of people living with HCV are in this age range.

CDC Releases MERS-CoV Advisory Following First U.S. Case - 06/17/2016

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an official health advisory May 3 on the identification of the first case of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in the United States. On May 1, the Indiana State Department of Health reported the suspected case to CDC, which confirmed the infection in a traveler who had visited Saudi Arabia.