Infectious diseases

While browsing in a Davis, California, bookstore, Karen Levy came across a brightly illustrated book with a provocative title that would change the trajectory of her academic career.

A simple, inexpensive method to capture the new coronavirus in wastewater could speed up detection of COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes, dorms and low-resource settings, according to new research by UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) Professor and Associate Chair Scott Meschke and coll

In a year like no other, DEOHS faculty, students and staff quickly pivoted to tackle new threats posed by the pandemic. We contributed to Washington state's COVID-19 response, showed the effectiveness of self-sampling for the virus and assessed impacts on essential workers—not to mention our furry friends.

Elizabeth Torres with El Proyecto Bienestar. Even before COVID-19 showed up on Pacific Northwest farms last spring, some farmers and farmworker advocates were rushing to get ready for it.

“When I explain my thesis project to people, they are always excited to hear about me working with marine animals,” Alexandria Vingino said. “And then I explain to them that I'm not really working with marine animals, I'm working with what’s in their poop.”

“How can we make our operating room safer during the pandemic?” When Dr. James Hecker, an anesthesiologist at UW Medical Center, heard this question from a fellow physician, he thought about the problem not just as a doctor but also as an engineer.

Can you reuse nonsurgical N95 respirators and KN95 and KF94 masks? Yes! Tips from DEOHS Assistant Professor Marissa Baker:  

 

When Michael Rosenfeld started college, he planned to become a labor historian. But his cell biology professor at Grinnell College turned him on to science.

Alexa Yadama BS, Environmental Health Hometown Pullman, WA Future plans A career in environmental or public health, and eventually a master’s in public health. “ I really appreciate mixing public health with my science background and helping people with the knowledge I have.”

The University of Washington Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) was recently awarded funding for four new projects to address the health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us all to adapt—whether that means throwing together dinner from pantry staples or tackling an urgent public health concern with some ingenuity and left-over materials in your lab.

Are our pets at risk for COVID-19? Recent reports of animals testing positive for the novel coronavirus—including a cat in Belgium, a dog in Hong Kong and, famously, a tiger in the Bronx Zoo—have pet owners worrying about their furry companions. Many also wonder whether pets can pass COVID-19 on to people.

Ola i ka Wai. Water is life. Tyler Gerken MS, Environmental Health Hometown: Kea’au, Hawai’i Island, HI Future plans: A career in the US Public Health Service, perhaps as an environmental health officer for the National Park Service or the Indian Health Service

Five months ago, I sat in a University of Washington classroom learning about how governments respond to emergencies in a course called “Disasters and Public Health,” part of my MPH program in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS).

Are you a business owner or worker grappling with the impact of COVID-19 on your workplace? See our COVID-19 resource guide for businesses and employees  

Editor's note: Results from this study were published June 3, 2020, in the New England Journal of Medicine.  

How are you coping with the COVID-19 outbreak? What are your family and your community doing to adapt to life under Washington’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order with gatherings banned, travel curtailed and schools and nonessential businesses closed?

Water is essential for life, but in communities with inadequate sanitation, it can also spread diseases like polio, typhoid and hepatitis A. By monitoring wastewater and water sources contaminated by wastewater for pathogens in fecal matter, researchers and public health workers can help stop waterborne illnesses in their tracks.

Our empty roads and restaurants reflect our new reality: Many workers are now working remotely in response to the coronavirus outbreak. But what if your work requires your presence?

The interdisciplinary Center for Exposures, Diseases, Genomics and Environment, part of the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, recently released a set of eight videos on what to do and not do in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak. 

  Countries including the US are taking dramatic steps to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, with some barring entry to anyone who has recently visited China. But do travel bans work?

Many state and local health agencies recognize the threat of climate change but need more resources and clearer, more flexible guidance to reduce its impact on public health, according to a new study from the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS).

Read more about the School of Public Health’s role with the Population Health Initiative in the new UW Public Health magazine.

According to the analysis, “strategic investments in a coordinated global-pandemics initiative would likely have a return ratio of between $17 and $20 on every $1 spent.” Curbing pandemics might also address shared global challenges, such as gender and social inequalities, and support climate adaptation and mitigation.

Could bacteria in your shower make you sick?