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Category: Infectious Diseases

  • ross-boyce

    North Carolina Healthcare Heroes Join Online Research Community to Help Fight COVID-19

    Ross Boyce, MD From clinicians to first responders, respiratory therapists, housekeepers, and food service workers, a wide range of North Carolina’s healthcare workers have enrolled in a new online research community to share the perspectives and problems faced by those on the COVID-19 pandemic front lines and to help find solutions. The Healthcare Worker Exposure Response & … Read more

  • David Wohl, MD-covid-newsworthy-january-14-20

    Wohl Expresses Concern For Rising COVID-19 Hospitalizations

    David Wohl, MD David Wohl, MD, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases, expressed his concern regarding the number of people with COVID-19 in North Carolina that continues to rise, in a News and Observer article. Wohl said new coronavirus cases can vary with the number of people tested and that counting people who end up in the hospital is a more straightforw … Read more

  • New OGHE Global Health Scholars

    Jennifer Morgan, MD The Office of Global Health Education recently announced the 4th cohort of Global Health Scholars, and two are from the department of medicine. The competitive, two-year, multi-disciplinary program provides funding to support the career and leadership development of residents and fellows with a strong interest in global health. Jennifer Morgan, MD, is a first … Read more

  • Myron Cohen, MD-ID-faculty-in-covid-news-dec-24-30

    Cohen Says Hydroxychloroquine Studies More Provocative Than Definitive

    Myron Cohen, MD A Bloomberg article recently featured a key study of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, for Covid-19 protection, that involved 821 health-care workers, first responders and people living with infected patients.  The article reports “half were given hydroxychloroquine for five days, while the other half received a placebo pill that contained the vitamin folate… … Read more

  • Myron Cohen, MD-ID-faculty-in-covid-news-dec-24-30

    Cohen Writes Editorial on COVID-19 Prevention Study in NEJM

    Myron Cohen, MD Myron Cohen, MD, wrote an editorial on the results of a clinical trial to determine efficacy of hydroxychloroquine as prevention of COVID-19. As of June 1, 2020, ClinicalTrials.gov listed 203 COVID-19 clinical trials with hydroxychloroquine, 60 of which were focused on prophylaxis — prevention of disease transmission. Researchers just published the latest results … Read more

  • luther-bartelt

    Bartelt Discussed Study With Mayo Clinic To Understand How Plasma With COVID-19 Antibodies Can Fight Infection

    Luther Bartelt, MD Luther Bartelt, assistant professor in the division of infectious diseases, discussed UNC Health’s participation in a Mayo Clinic study with the Federal Drug Administrations’s Expanded Access Program, an effort to study plasma with antibodies from the blood of people who have recovered from the coronavirus. In NC Health News, Bartlet said the UNC School of Medi … Read more

  • Stanley M. Lemon, MD

    Researchers Discover Key Player in Hepatitis A Virus Infection

    Stanley M. Lemon, MD How hepatitis A virus (HAV) manages to enter liver cells called hepatocytes and initiate infection had remained a mystery for fifty years until now. University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers designed experiments using gene-editing tools to discover how molecules called gangliosides serve as de facto gatekeepers to allow the virus entry into … Read more

  • emily-sickbert-bennett-dom-newsworthy-January-2022

    Sickbert-Bennett Shares Research On the Effectiveness of Face Masks

    Emily Sickbert-Bennett, PhD, MS Emily Sickbert-Bennett, PhD, MS, associate professor of infectious diseases and director of infection prevention at UNC Medical Center, discussed the effectiveness of different face masks in a WRAL TechWire news article written by Mark Derewicz. UNC researchers measured the “fraction of submicron particles that penetrate into the breathing space of … Read more

  • emily-sickbert-bennett-dom-newsworthy-January-2022

    Sickert-Bennett Tells How Hospitals Are Keeping Clean During the Pandemic

    Emily Sickbert-Bennett, PhD, MS Emily Sickbert-Bennett, PhD, MS, associate professor of infectious diseases and director of infection prevention at UNC Medical Center, explains how hospitals are staying clean during the COVID-19 pandemic in a new UNC Health Talk article. The article recognizes that hospitals are always committed to keeping their facilities clean and sanitary to p … Read more

  • David Wohl, MD-covid-newsworthy-january-14-20

    Wohl Offers Advice For Reopening Establishments

    David Wohl, MD David Wohl, MD, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases, recommends in a News and Observer article that establishments adopt the model use in health care settings, which are designed to keep people from getting infected: people are kept from getting too close to each other, they wear masks and they clean surfaces often. Wohl says, “In general, … Read more

  • luther-bartelt

    Bartelt Tells How Plasma Donations Can Help COVID-19 Patients

    Luther Bartelt, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases, was featured in a News and Observer article about the use of COVID-19 plasma as therapy. “The antibodies are like a sponge that would soak up and neutralize the virus to impede its ability to replicate,” said Bartelt. He also added that “once the plasma is collected, it can be frozen and u … Read more

  • dr-jonathan-parr-STD-Awareness

    Use of Arthritis Drug For COVID-19 Lacks Clear Evidence of Clinical Improvement

    Jonathan Parr, MD, MPH Jonathan Parr, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases, was interviewed by the Charlotte Observer regarding the use of arthritis drug toxilizumab in treating COVID-19 and a case report that indicates “clear evidence of clinical improvement” is limited. This study “made us rethink our use of the drug,” says Parr in the … Read more