Facing a dire shortage of protective gear for healthcare workers, hospitals in Iowa and across the country have turned to their communities for assistance. In the Cedar Valley, the University of Northern Iowa is helping answer that call.
We’re living in unprecedented times and, as our lifestyles drastically alter to slow the spread of coronavirus, we all have questions on how to adapt. In this feature, we’ll turn to UNI experts for jargon-free answers. Have a question you’d like to see answered? Please email us at ur@uni.edu.
How do I tell if I have a cold/flu vs coronavirus? Do only older people get sick?
The University of Northern Iowa will host a health panel on the coronavirus featuring experts from the university and Black Hawk County Health Department in an effort to dispel myths about the virus and provide information to the community on how to prevent and combat its spread.
The panel will be held at 3 p.m., March 11 in the Lang Hall Auditorium on UNI’s campus.
It’s a pathogen that’s quickly become a household name.
Most of the world had never heard of coronavirus until just two months ago, when a novel version known as SARS-CoV-2, which causes a respiratory disease known as COVID-19, quickly began to spread first in China and then across the globe.
It was the middle of the afternoon when Phales Milimo saw a pregnant woman go into labor and collapse on the sidewalk.
She was in the Sinazongwe District in southern Zambia, just a five-hour drive from her hometown of Lusaka, the country’s bustling metropolitan capital. Technically, she hadn’t left her country, but it felt like she was in a different world.
Anti-NMDAR encephalitis is a neurological autoimmune disease that can cause hallucinations, memory loss and even death — but it hasn’t stopped this UNI student from remembering where she’s going.
Swallowing can be something we take for granted. We do it without thought. But for someone suffering from dysphagia, which is the medical term for a difficulty with swallowing, this seemingly simple task is actually an intricate dance between the many nerves and muscles that coordinate eating and breathing. A misstep can be the difference between life and death. For these individuals, UNI is there to help.
During an eight-week internship at Boston University this summer, senior Mollie Sherman saw all sides of medicine – the thrilling successes and the anguishing defeats. And it gave her the confidence to pursue a goal she had been told she could never accomplish.
