Health

West Virginia University is providing additional COVID-19 data to help the campus and surrounding community have a better understanding of positive test results, monitoring and response protocols.

FARMacy, an initiative by WVU Extension Service Family Nutrition Program that aims to help people living with diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and other chronic conditions by providing them with healthy, fresh foods is changing lives with assistance from the Walmart Foundation and helping more West Virginians than ever before.

According to Charles Anderson—a researcher with the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute—scientists have known for over half a century that charged zinc atoms have something to do with neuronal chatter. But with a new grant from the National Institutes of Health, Anderson will work to pinpoint exactly what zinc does, and how it does it.

President Gordon Gee sent a letter today (Aug. 26) welcoming West Virginia University students, faculty and staff to campus for the start of a new academic year. He called on Mountaineers to approach this unprecedented semester with transparency, empathy and kindness.

In a study led by Xuefang “Sophie” Ren, a research assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience, a team of West Virginia University neuroscientists found that blood substitution therapy rescues the brains of mice from ischemic damage, a potential breakthrough in stroke therapy.

West Virginia University has completed baseline COVID-19 testing as part of its Return to Campus plan launched this summer. A total of 26,726 tests were collected from students and employees across the WVU System from July 20-Aug. 22. As anticipated, the number of positive test results rose on the Morgantown campus as testing volume increased over the last week to ten days. However, the total cumulative percent positive remains low at 0.64%.

West Virginia University’s public dashboard, which tracks and compiles COVID-19 information collected during testing across the WVU system, reported 96 positive test results out of 16,046 tests resulted between July 21-Aug. 16. Those positive test results include 92 students and 4 faculty/staff.

WVU is aware of recent off-campus parties that some of our students hosted and attended and the office of Student Conduct is already reviewing the reports from this weekend. To be clear - the University will not tolerate behaviors that violate local and state public safety orders or WVU’s own health and safety guidelines putting our campus community and the greater Morgantown community at risk.

Following her education and hands-on laboratory experience at West Virginia University, graduate student Samantha Fabian is leading the West Virginia National Guard’s COVID-19 mobile testing laboratories.

A West Virginia University researcher will co-lead a study to learn more about the off-label use of rapid response fentanyl test strips as an opioid overdose prevention strategy.