Hantavirus Explained: How Dangerous Is It Really?
Hantavirus is a virus that most people have never encountered directly and that most infectious disease specialists have spent their careers treating as a rare and geographically limited threat. That changed in April 2026 when a hantavirus outbreak of a particularly dangerous strain emerged aboard a cruise ship sailing from southern Argentina, resulting in multiple […]
Hantavirus case in Illinois has nothing to do with the ship
A Winnebago County resident may have caught the virus closer to home than anyone expected. Illinois health officials are keeping a close watch on a potential hantavirus case in Winnebago County — and the circumstances surrounding it are raising new questions about where the real risk lies. The Illinois Department of Public Health confirmed Tuesday […]
How loneliness is breaking hearts in the most literal sense and what the research reveals about the risk
Loneliness has spent most of its history as a subject for poets and philosophers rather than cardiologists and epidemiologists. That is changing. A growing and increasingly rigorous body of research is documenting the physical health consequences of chronic social isolation with enough precision to reframe loneliness from a purely emotional experience into a significant and […]
The deadly hantavirus outbreak that has nations on alert
A deadly outbreak of hantavirus aboard an expedition cruise ship has set off an international public health response, with health authorities across more than a dozen countries scrambling to track down passengers who may have been exposed to the rare and potentially fatal virus. The MV Hondius, owned by Dutch company Oceanwide Expeditions, departed from […]
Colorectal cancer screening gets a promising upgrade in US
Colorectal cancer has been climbing at a worrying pace across the United States, and public health officials are racing to catch up. In recent years, health authorities have responded by lowering the recommended screening age, intensifying awareness efforts, and expanding the range of available screening tools all in an effort to catch the disease earlier, […]
Asthma Kills Black Americans at Twice the Rate. Here’s why
Asthma is one of the most common chronic respiratory conditions in the United States, affecting more than 24 million people according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It narrows the airways, produces inflammation, and generates symptoms that range from mild wheezing to episodes severe enough to require emergency care. For most patients, the […]
Moderate drinking can reduce blood flow to your brain
What a new study found about alcohol and the brain For decades, moderate alcohol consumption has been viewed as a relatively harmless habit a glass of wine with dinner, a beer after work. But a new study published in the journal Alcohol is raising serious questions about whether any amount of drinking is truly safe, […]
Shingles vaccine linked to 20% lower dementia risk in landmark study
A Stanford Medicine study tracking 296,000 people in Wales found vaccinated individuals were 20% less likely to develop dementia over a seven-year period. The shingles vaccine has long been recommended for older adults as protection against a painful viral flare-up. Researchers did not set out to study dementia. The data led […]
The alarming rise in STIs and the myth putting more people at risk
STIs have been climbing to record levels across multiple countries and demographic groups for several consecutive years, a trend that public health researchers describe as one of the most significant and most preventable health crises currently unfolding in plain sight. The infections involved range from bacterial conditions that are readily treatable to viral ones that […]
Dangerous hearing loss habits that may raise dementia risk
A growing body of research is drawing a clearer line between how well people hear and how well their brains age. A new study found that two specific middle ear conditions cholesteatoma, an abnormal skin growth in the ear, and eardrum perforation are both associated with a meaningfully higher risk of developing dementia. While researchers are […]