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For their study, the investigators, who are also members of UF’s Emerging Pathogens Institute, evaluated population normalization factors, which are used to determine the relative human fecal contribution in a sample. With this information, scientists can control for fluctuations in the population contributing to a wastewater sample throughout time while quantifying the SARS-CoV-2 wastewater concentrations.

For this core group of PHHP researchers, who are also members of UF’s Center for Environmental and Human Toxicology, Water Institute and Emerging Pathogens Institute, there is an urgent need to identify emerging contaminants in Florida’s waters, assess their impact and use that data to inform local, state and federal agencies.

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has become a valuable tool for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 infection trends throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Population biomarkers that measure the relative human fecal contribution to normalize SARS-CoV-2 wastewater concentrations are needed for improved analysis and interpretation of community infection trends.

While 5% of 247 million global malaria cases are reported in Uganda, it is also a top refugee hosting country in Africa, with over 1.36 million refugees. Despite malaria being an emerging challenge for humanitarian response in refugee settlements, little is known about its risk factors.

Arthropod-borne (arbo-) viruses face evolutionary pressures that favor generalism in the range of both vertebrate hosts and arthropod vectors that they can use. That flexibility can pose a particular problem for public health, as it both enables their spread into new locations and ecosystems and adds a layer of unpredictability to their dynamics upon arrival.

Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) modulator therapy have resulted in longer life expectancies, yet pulmonary exacerbations remain a leading cause of morbidity. Intravenous antibiotics is the mainstay treatment, however achieving adequate concentrations remains challenging. The effect of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of beta-lactams on exacerbations and lung function has not been studied.

The Girinka program in Rwanda has contributed to an increase in milk production, as well as to reduced malnutrition and increased incomes. But dairy products can be hazardous to health, potentially transmitting diseases such as bovine brucellosis, tuberculosis, and cause diarrhea.

Established dogma concerning the action of insecticidal arthropod-derived peptides (e.g., scorpion toxins), was that they acted on the peripheral nervous system and were excluded from the central nervous system (CNS) by barrier systems.

Malaria was a major public health issue in Nepal for much of the 20th century (Newby, 2015), but cases declined significantly in the past two decades, in response to concerted intervention efforts, as part of a push to elimination. Between 2010 and 2020, indigenous malaria declined by about 98% with only 73 cases reported in Nepal in 2020 (EDCD, 2021), and Nepal is preparing for malaria elimination by 2026.

The Bacillus anthracis exosporium nap is the outermost portion of spore that interacts with the environment and host systems. Changes to this layer have the potential to impact wide-ranging physiological and immunological processes. The unique sugar, anthrose, normally coats the exosporium nap at its most distal points.