News from the School of Public Health

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.

The Center for Health Literacy is asking African American and Hispanic adults to test a smartphone health app for personalized health information.

The app can help find information to prevent or manage common health conditions.

Here's how to participate:

• OWN an ANDROID phone
• Willing to download the app
• Use the app at least 15 minutes a week
• Attend 1 virtual orientation session

Participants will get:

Two experts in LGBTQ and young adult mental health, Dr. Jessica Fish (UMD SPH) and Dr. Stephen T. Russel (UT, Austin) describe the serious harms that LGBTQ youth experience from so-called “conversion therapy” efforts in a new editorial published in the American Journal of Public Health.