The HPV vaccine could help prevent several cancers in men as well as women; so why aren't more parents encouraging their children to get it? Amer Kechli, a pediatrician at associate professor at Temple's School of Medicine, says that fear and lack of information could be a factor. He says that there is no evidence of serious side effects or with increased sexual activity related to getting the vaccine. HPV is completely preventable, and Kechli says that should be what prompts parents to get their children vaccinated.

More than 500 people in federal prison for selling crack in Pennsylvania could be released early under new sentencing guidelines designed to reduce disparities that punished dealers more harshly than those who sold the powdered form. Drug policy experts said the changes are long overdue in a system designed in response to panic over the crack epidemic perceived across the nation in the 1980s."They were enacted in a climate of fear and lots of media attention about how crack was affecting our communities," said Steven Belenko, a professor of criminal justice at Temple.

In Philadelphia, rates of obesity among teens are above the national average. A new study led by Clare Lenhart, a public health doctoral candidate at Temple, examines what Philadelphia public high school students are doing to shed pounds. While most of the children surveyed expressed that they were trying to lose weight, a majority were engaged in counter-productive behavior such as smoking, drinking sodas and playing video games. "It could be that they are interested [in weight loss] but don't know how [to do it]," said Lenhart.