News from the School of Public Health

In an interview with Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, Sacoby Wilson, associate professor of environmental health, said that people of color are more likely to experience extreme heat.

Air pollution is more damaging to the cardiovascular health of adolescents living in poverty-stricken areas than to adolescents living in wealthier areas, according to a new study published in the journal Annals of Epidemiology.

Don Milton, professor of environmental health, along with lead author and post doctoral fellow Jake Bueno de Mesquita, published an article on how airborne transmission contributes to influenza epidemics. 

Using data from the largest human influenza challenge-transmission trial, researchers applied the data to university dormitory environments. Drs. Milton and Bueno de Mesquita predicted transmission risk given measurements of the source strength of virus shed into exhaled breath and indoor air characteristics. 

At a time when we urgently need multidisciplinary measures to combat COVID-19, there are often miscommunications about the modes of respiratory infection transmission among scientists in different fields.

Associate Professor Typhanye Dyer and Assistant Research Professor Rodman Turpin conducted two studies on the role of syndemics—combinations of adverse social, structural and individual factors—on health outcomes among Black sexual minority men and transgender women in the US. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased risk factors for child maltreatment. A group of researchers, including Assistant Professor Elizabeth Aparicio in the University of Maryland School of Public Health, drafted a policy brief to urge policymakers to adapt existing child and family services and policies to ensure the safety, resilience, and overall well-being of vulnerable children and families in the face of increased stressors.