Health Sciences News

Contact Tracing with Annie Thomas for the Podcast in Place, Youth Stories from Quarantine Read More

Podcast in Place: Youth Stories From Quarantine – Episode 27: Contact Tracing with Annie Thomas

 |  Alaska Teen Media Institute  |  ,

Contact tracing is an essential part of combating the spread of Covid-19. Not only do contact tracers work to discover where a person infected with the coronavirus may have contracted it, they also attempt to inform others about possible infection. But there is a lot more to the complicated work that they do. In this episode we’ll be hearing from Annie Thomas. She’s been a nurse for about fifteen years, and currently she is the project manager for the UAA Surge Contact Tracing team. She is also the owner of Managing Me Enterprises which does retreats for teens to help them build community cohesion and resilience.

Students gather outdoors at the UAA campus Read More

UAA is No. 16 in the Top 25 most affordable online MPH programs for 2021

 |  MPH Online  |  ,

Public health is a noble calling, largely unappreciated until recent events (namely, a global pandemic) shone new light on its importance. We need public health workers and leaders now more than ever.

COVID contact tracing on a phone Read More

UAA Steps Up to Help Address Need for COVID-19 Contact Tracers

 |  Alaska Business  |  ,

Contact tracing is important. There are documented cases of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 and were asymptomatic, which means people may spread the virus without any idea that they have it. Contact tracing can inform individuals who may feel healthy—or who have mild symptoms they attribute to allergies or other causes—of their risk to others, allowing them to get tested or quarantine as appropriate, hopefully reducing the spread of the virus.

Philippe Amstislavski Read More

Faculty Fulbright winner will travel to Finland to research plastic alternatives

 |  Green & Gold  |  ,

UAA Associate Professor of Public Health Philippe Amstislavski was recently awarded a J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship. He will spend spring 2021 in Tampere, Finland, working with the biomaterials group at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. Headed by colleague Lisa Wikstrom, the biomaterials group works to develop bio-based alternatives to plastic.

A woman talks with her grandmother outdoors Read More

Ask a UAA Expert: Britteny Howell on COVID-19 Risks to Older Adults

 |  University of Alaska Anchorage  |  ,

How can we support older adults during this COVID-19 outbreak? Britteny Howell, professor of population health sciences, recommends maintaining social contact with elders, having a plan to determine what happens if they get sick, as well as keeping them aware of COVID-19-related scams.