Shigella infections are growing and drug resistance is why
Shigella has been making people sick for thousands of years. Reports of the violent diarrheal illness it causes appear in ancient records, and the bacterium itself was formally identified in 1897 during a devastating outbreak in Japan that killed 20,000 people in just six months. The scientist who isolated it, Dr. Kiyoshi Shiga, gave the […]
Understanding how mosquitoes are adapting to your repellent
or decades, DEET has been the most trusted name in mosquito repellent. It worked, it was widely available, and the explanation for why was straightforward enough. Mosquitoes found the smell unpleasant, and so they stayed away. A new study out of Virginia Tech suggests that explanation was incomplete, and that at least one mosquito species […]
Overview of what WHO says communities need beyond treatment
When Ebola or Marburg strikes a community, the immediate concern is containment. But the disruption those outbreaks leave behind runs much deeper than the number of confirmed cases. Jobs disappear. Schools close. Food supply chains break down. Families caring for the sick face social exclusion long after the outbreak is declared over. A new guidance […]
Lung cancer screening in India and the AI tools changing it
Lung cancer kills more people globally than any other cancer, accounting for 1.8 million deaths each year. In India, the situation is particularly grim. The country recorded 81,742 new lung cancer cases in 2022 and 75,031 deaths in the same year. The survival rate sits at approximately 5%, compared to roughly 20% in Western nations. […]
Impact of lifestyle on health
The World Health Organization estimates that 60% of the factors tied to individual health and quality of life are connected to lifestyle. That is not a small number. It places the weight of health outcomes squarely on the patterns people build and repeat across years, from what they eat to how they sleep to how […]
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 […]