Browse Controlling and Preventing Disease Stories - Page 2

A drive-thru clinic to administer COVID-19 and flu vaccines held at the University of Georgia Griffin campus in late October was successful, with 91 members of the Griffin-Spalding community receiving vaccinations through the partnership between UGA-Griffin, UGA Cooperative Extension, the UGA College of Pharmacy and the local U-Save-It Pharmacy.

In the latter months of 2019, a novel coronavirus probably leaped from a yet-unknown animal in central China into a human. Some speculate that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. But evidence suggests that it’s far more likely that the virus was a natural “zoonotic” leap from animal to human. The resulting COVID-19 pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, including more than 23,000 Georgians, and mutated into dangerous new variants.

Obesity affects millions of Americans and increases the risk of stroke, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other causes of premature death. The percentage of U.S. adults with obesity has risen steadily from 13.4% in the early 1960s to the current average of more than 42%.

As of Sept. 21, an invasive and dangerous pest, the Asian longhorned tick, has been confirmed in north Georgia. Experts are warning livestock producers and the public to be on the lookout, as the ticks can kill an animal by attaching to a host by the hundreds.

Researchers at the University of Georgia have provided multifaceted evidence to suggest the likely origins behind the global spread of Salmonella Enteritidis, which has caused recurring outbreaks of the foodborne pandemic linked to poultry products.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted ordinary life for millions of people, and rural Georgia was hit especially hard. With hospitals overwhelmed with cases, residents of rural areas found it hard to access care or acquire materials such as face masks and disinfecting wipes.

Speaking at the University of Georgia for the first time since graduating in 2008, U.S. Department of Defense's Ada Bacetty presented the “Shattered Ceilings” seminar to the campus community — an engaging conversation about breaking through barriers in pursuit of diversity and inclusion.

When COVID-19 was identified, Malak Esseili stopped taking her children along on trips to the grocery store and she told her sisters to start wearing scarves as makeshift masks while in public. As an assistant professor of food virology at the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety in Griffin, Esseili studied the emerging viral pathogen SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19).

A team including University of Georgia researchers has for the first time documented the regrowth of surgically removed pathways in the lymphatic system, a network of vessels designed to pump away inflammatory fluids and defend the body against infection.

Farmers and food processors take routine steps to reduce the likelihood of foodborne pathogens, like Salmonella and E. coli, contacting our food and causing illness. The procedures that our food industry takes on a daily basis are also effective in reducing the chances that the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 will come in contact with the food we eat.