Fox 19: Swallowing and COVID-19
UC expert in voice, swallow and airway discusses COVID-19 challenges
Who doesn’t go through a day without swallowing?
One in 25 adults in the United States suffer from dysphagia: the medical term for swallowing disorders. Swallowing problems tend to intensify with increasing age and are of particular concern for patients 65 and over in the midst of the COVID-19 era.
Severe dysphagia can lead to aspiration pneumonia, which can be a mimicker of the respiratory systems seen in COVID-19. Cough generating procedures, also called aerosol generating procedures, have been deemed high risk by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Rebecca Howell, MD, associate professor in the UC College of Medicine and UC Health physician, has worked with her colleagues to offer some solutions for treating swallowing patients in the backdrop of a pandemic. They are offering best practices in a recently published paper Moving Forward with Dysphagia Care: Implementing Strategies during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond.
Listen to her interview with Fox 19 morning news on the subject.
Related Stories
'Paradigm-shifting' study confirms effectiveness of long-acting HIV treatment
February 26, 2026
The results of a clinical trial involving the University of Cincinnati, recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine, show people failing HIV treatments with oral medications were able to be treated successfully using injections.
How do horses whinny?
February 26, 2026
A horse makes the low-pitched part of its whinny by vibrating its vocal cords — similar to how humans speak and sing — and the high-pitched part by whistling with its voice box, according to a new paper published in the journal Current Biology and featured in Smithsonian magazine.
UC receives grant for AI use in medical education
February 26, 2026
The University of Cincinnati is turning to artificial intelligence to help solve a problem in medical training. The College of Medicine was awarded a grant valued at more than $1 million to use AI in advanced physician training through personalized learning.