Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, you probably didn't expect to be talking quite so much about monkeypox — or to see that an outbreak of the virus, which normally circulates in west and central Africa, would spread to 18 people in nine U.S. states and nearly 180 cases in the U.K.
The first patient has been dosed with a vaccine for the tropical disease schistosomiasis, developed by Seattle biotech company PAI Life Sciences. Darrick Carter, professor of global health, was mentioned.
PAI Life Sciences, a biotechnology company specializing in translational research for neglected tropical diseases, today announced the dosing of the first healthy volunteer in a clinical trial of SchistoShield®, the company’s preventive vaccine against schistosomiasis, a major tropical disease threatening nearly 1 billion people in 79 countries with more than 260 million people currently infected. Darrick Carter, professor of global health, was mentioned.
The Department of Global Health recently awarded its 2022 Outstanding Staff Award to Arika Johnson (Program Manager, DGH Core). Her role as program manager for the newly implemented faculty search includes working with DGH leadership, Faculty Search Council, Human Resources, Communications, students and faculty candidates. Arika has done a phenomenal job supporting the DGH Faculty Search Council through the biggest, most complex faculty search the Department has ever done.
In March of 2021, Horacio Chacon Torrico arrived in Seattle to begin his second year of graduate studies at the University of Washington School of Public Health, after having completed the first two quarters remotely from his home in Lima, Peru. Within no more than a week of arriving, he received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. But as he scrolled through his Facebook feed, he saw posts from friends in Peru who grieved their lost loved ones from the pandemic. Chacon Torrico felt guilt at having so easily received his vaccine, when so many from his home country were suffering.
Genome scientist Evan Eichler and infectious disease researcher Tulio de Oliveira have been named to the TIME 100 List, gaining recognition with the likes of famous artists, innovators, activists and world leaders.
On April 11, public schools in Providence, R.I, made face masks optional instead of mandatory for students and teachers—celebrating the move as a “positive milestone” brought about by declining COVID-19 cases among students and community support for a more lenient policy. Brandon Guthrie, Associate Professor of global health, was mentioned.
Dr. Peter Rabinowitz, professor of environmental and occupational health science at the UW, says Gov. Inslee's positive test result for COVID-19 is a reminder that we are not out of the woods when it comes to the pandemic and people need to continue to be careful.
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Scientists in Africa have been monitoring and sequencing pathogens since long before the pandemic. The world benefited from this network when scientists including Sikhulile Moyo, laboratory director for the Botswana-Harvard HIV Reference Laboratory, and Tulio de Oliveira, director of South Africa’s Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, identified and reported the emergence of the Omicron variant last November.