Asst. Professor of Biological Anthropology and Institute for Public Health Faculty Scholar, Theresa Gildner weighs in on the impact of parasitic infections in low-income communities with state-neglected sewage systems.
Category: Faculty Scholar in the News
Inaugural Danforth St. Louis Confluence conference elevates community research (Links to an external site)
The Danforth St. Louis Confluence Conference highlights the importance of community-based research. Matthew Kreuter, a faculty member at the Brown School, is the first recipient of the William H. Danforth St. Louis Confluence Award (STLCA).
Change in breast density over time linked to cancer risk (Links to an external site)
Breast density changes over time may affect cancer risk, according to new research. Lead researcher Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, suggests women monitor changes in density & discuss with their healthcare provider.
Severe COVID-19 linked to 16-fold increase in risk of heart rhythm disorder (Links to an external site)
Maryland created a Prescription Drug Affordability Board to rein in prices (Links to an external site)
Faculty Scholar Rachel Sachs discusses with NPR how Maryland and other states aim to make prescription drugs more affordable.
2023 Best/Worst States for Children’s Health Care (Links to an external site)
Faculty Scholar and Brown School Associate Professor, Derek Brown, PhD, talks about helping children grow up healthy.
In Afghanistan, poverty, lack of education associated with dementia (Links to an external site)
In a newly published study, poverty was closely associated with higher rates of dementia among older adults in Afghanistan. Jean-Francois Trani, an associate professor at the Brown School, led the research.
Chronic Stress Can be a Serious Problem: How to Spot the Symptoms (Links to an external site)
Dr. Jessi Gold, Psychiatrist and Assistant Professor and Director of Wellness at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis explains, “Unlike acute stress, which is a reaction to a specific event, chronic stress is a consistent feeling of being pressured or overwhelmed for a long period of time.”
Why recognizing, treating depression should be a staple of pediatric care (Links to an external site)

Pediatrician Katie Plax and her team with the Washington University pediatric and adolescent ambulatory research consortium partnered with pediatricians in the community and trained them how to spot anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.
Scientists aim to develop vaccine against all deadly coronaviruses (Links to an external site)

WashU scientists Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, (left) and Sean Whelan, PhD, lead a team working to minimize the risk of another devastating coronavirus pandemic by designing a vaccine that reduces sickness and death caused by all potentially deadly coronaviruses, including ones that have not yet affected people.
Paxlovid reduces risk of long-term health problems, death from COVID-19 (Links to an external site)
Senior author, Ziyad Al-Aly. MD has published a study in JAMA Internal Medicine showing that Paxlovid is an “effective weapon” against COVID’s debilitating long-term effects on the body.
Does the Banking Sector Turmoil Make a Recession More Likely? (Links to an external site)
Faculty Scholar and Professor of Economics, Steven Fazzari talks about the latest upheaval in the banking industry and weighs risks of banking inside/outside of the big banks.
Long-Covid symptoms are less common now than earlier in the pandemic (Links to an external site)
Finally some good news about long COVID. Ziyad Al-Aly, director of WashU’s Clinical Epidemiology Center says its complicated, but LC symptoms are less common now.
Siteman Cancer Center pushing for early screening for colorectal cancer (Links to an external site)
Faculty Scholar & gastroenterologist Jean Wang, MD, says lowering the recommended age for colorectal screening can save lives.
Clinic workers say St. Louis needs more medical interpreters (Links to an external site)
Faculty Scholar & asst. Professor, Julia Lopez says messages about COVID vaccines & other health info has not reached non-English speakers in St. Louis.
End of public health emergency and telehealth: Top stories from the AHCJ Conference (Links to an external site)
The public health emergency declared in 2020 ends May 11. How will this impact Medicaid enrollment? Co-Director of the Center for Health Economics & Policy, Timothy McBride talked about it on a panel at the recent AHCJ conference in St. Louis.
Ukraine war crimes cases to open as International Criminal Court seeks 1st arrest warrants since Russia’s invasion (Links to an external site)
Professor of International Criminal Law Leila Sadat, special advisor on crimes against humanity to the ICC prosecutor, discusses how arrest warrants can be confirmed in absentia in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Hitchhiker plants inspire improved techniques for reattaching tendon to bone (Links to an external site)
Guy Genin, PhD, the Harold and Kathleen Faught Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering has developed a new approach to suturing based on the mechanics and spacing of a hitchhiker plant’s attachment system.
Why the scary fungus in ‘The Last of Us’ won’t cause an apocalyptic outbreak (Links to an external site)
If you’ve watched HBO’s “The Last of Us”, you know what a scary fungus in humans looks like. But it is real? Biological Anthropologist and Institute for Public Health Faculty Scholar, Theresa Gildner discusses.
Fact check: ICD-10 medical codes are used to track trends, not individuals (Links to an external site)
Co-Director of the Center for Health Economics & Policy, Karen Joynt Maddox, MD, weighs in on protections of personal medical information.
‘You will get better’: See the inspirational notes Sen. John Fetterman’s kids wrote while he’s treated for depression (Links to an external site)
Psychiatrist and Asst. Professor, Jessi Gold, MD discusses the importance of children to “see parents as human” and discuss mental health struggles in age-appropriate ways.
What’s your current risk of getting long Covid? Estimates hover around 5%-10% (Links to an external site)
Chief of research and development at Veteran Affairs St. Louis Health Care System, Ziyad Al-Aly discusses the possibility of getting long COVID
WashU researcher collaborates with community organization to teach Black girls about equitable genomic research

Faculty Scholar and Asst. Professor, Brett Maricque and team are working with Black Girls Do STEM to help local students understand the value of their own genetic data.
Washington University School of Medicine helps set new global policy on malnutrition (Links to an external site)
Faculty Scholar and professor of pediatrics, Mark Manary, MD, and his team’s latest discoveries are setting global policy guidelines on malnutrition.
COVID-19 infections raise risk of long-term gastrointestinal problems (Links to an external site)
Those who have experienced COVID-19 infection may have issues with gastrointestinal disorders within a year, according to a team study led by Ziyad Al Aly, MD.
Diabetes and obesity are on the rise in young adults, a study says (Links to an external site)
Karen Joynt Maddox, MD, a center director at the Institute for Public Health and associate professor at the School of Medicine co-authored a study showing high risks for these chronic diseases & cardiovascular issues among young Black, Hispanic and Mexican American individuals.
Older people with anxiety frequently don’t get help. Here’s why (Links to an external site)
Institute Faculty Scholar and head of psychiatry at WashU, Eric Lenze, MD, co-authored a JAMA Psychiatry editorial on older adults mental health concerns that may often be dismissed.
WashU professor’s work leads federal officials to listen to mental health patients (Links to an external site)
New Institute Faculty Scholar Morgan Shields, a professor of social work at the Brown School, says that “patient centeredness” is essential in psychiatric patient care.
Local researchers studying COVID’s lingering aftereffects (Links to an external site)
Faculty Scholar Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist led COVID-19 research in 2020 and continues to see how later variants are impacting heart health.
Adding antipsychotic med to antidepressant may help older adults with treatment-resistant depression (Links to an external site)
Eric Lenze, MD, head of the Department of Psychiatry, led a study that found for those older adults who don’t respond to standard treatments, augmenting their usual antidepressants with an add-on treatment is more effective than switching from one drug to another.
Parasitic infections common in kids in low-resource US communities, study finds (Links to an external site)
Anthropologist & Institute for Public Health Faculty Scholar, Theresa Gildner, led a study that found parasitic infections are probably widespread in low-resource communities in the southern U.S.
Cardiovascular deaths rose in first years of COVID, study says. Experts have ideas why (Links to an external site)
Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist studying long COVID published two studies which found that COVID-19 creates a greater risk of future cardiovascular diseases.
How to Recover From Burnout (Links to an external site)
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Institute for Public Health Faculty Scholar, Jessie Gold, MD discusses a “burnout” as a workplace-associated condition.
A call for clinical trial globalization in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (Links to an external site)
Faculty Scholar & Asst. Professor of Neurology, Jorge Llibre-Guerra, MD, wants to include more people from low-and middle-income countries in Alzheimer’s clinical trials. His team’s paper on it is published by the Alzheimer’s Association.
More than one-third of St. Louis K-12 students change schools midyear, new report shows (Links to an external site)
Why are more than a third of K-12 students changing schools mid-year? Institute for Public Health Faculty Scholar, Jason Jabbari, points to a few reasons.
Claims about US medical codes for unvaccinated are misleading (Links to an external site)
Co-Director of the Center for Health Economics & Policy, Karen Joynt Maddox, MD, discusses a false claim circulating social media that our vaccination records are open the public.
Why most Americans can’t get mental health care as easily as Sen. John Fetterman (Links to an external site)
Psychiatrist & Assistant Professor, Jessi Gold, MD, talks about barriers to extended health leave for a large portion of Americans.
CMS to work closely with FDA on accelerated approval payment reforms (Links to an external site)
Law Professor and Institute Faculty Scholar, Rachel Sachs discusses a change in reimbursement to providers as CMS-the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-works with the FDA to accelerate payment reforms.
Institute Faculty Scholar: Effective public health programs in Africa can work in St. Louis

Fred Ssewamala, PhD, the William E. Gordon Distinguished Professor at the Brown School and Institute Faculty Scholar is helping families in Africa through the implementation of more than 20 public health programs. Read about him in St. Louis Magazine.
Democrats Dismiss Solvency Fearmongering While Offering Social Security Fix (Links to an external site)
Center for Health Economics & Policy co-Director, Timothy McBride, PhD, weighs in on fear around “the solvency issue” as it relates to Social Security.
Depression in stroke survivors like John Fetterman is common, experts say (Links to an external site)
Institute for Public Health Faculty Scholar and Psychiatrist Jessi Gold discusses pervasive issues with those who have a prior history with depression.
Republicans Have Wanted To Cut Medicare And Social Security For Decades (Links to an external site)
Professor Timothy McBride, PhD, co-director for the Center for Health Economics & Policy at the Institute for Public Health, talks about the history of Republican cuts to social programs during the past decade.
WashU research spurs changes to global guidelines for feeding malnourished kids (Links to an external site)
Faculty Scholar and professor of pediatrics led a trial that has resulted in changed global guidelines for therapeutic food.
Pandemic telehealth was a boon to people with psychiatric conditions — what happens when it ends? (Links to an external site)
Jessi Gold, a psychiatrist and assistant professor of psychiatry discusses the good and bad about Telehealth.
Do Repeat COVID Infections Increase the Risk of Severe Disease or Long COVID? (Links to an external site)
Epidemiologist and Faculty Scholar, Ziyad Al-Aly led a study showing a higher likelihood of death or hospitalization among COVID-19 patients who have been infected more than once vs. those infected only once.
Entrepreneurs Face Headwinds From Investment Sector (Links to an external site)
Faculty Scholar and Research Assistant Professor, Jason Jabbari, PhD and others from WashU”s Social Policy Institute examined skill and talent gaps in the investment sector.
Article co-authored by center co-director published in Journal of Rural Health (Links to an external site)
An article co-authored by Center for Health Economics & Policy co-Director, Timothy McBride, PhD, has been published in the Journal of Rural Health.
Republicans Have Wanted To Cut Medicare And Social Security For Decades (Links to an external site)
Faculty Scholar and co-Director of the Center for Health Economics & Policy, Timothy McBride, PhD, is quoted as an expert on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in this Talking Points Memo article.
EXPLAINER: How Does COVID-19 Affect the Heart? (Links to an external site)
Faculty Scholar and clinical epidemiologist, Ziyad Al-Aly talks about COVID-19 as a risk factor for heart disease.
Pollution From Life-Saving Drugs May Add to Superbug Crisis, UN Says (Links to an external site)
Faculty Scholar and Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases, Jason Burnham, MD, discusses the impact of pollution from life-saving drugs on poor communities across the globe.