Recent News

By Category: Public Health

Guinea worm is poised to become the second human disease to be eradicated

(The Washington Post) Guinea worm disease is reaching the end of its days. The parasitic infection, which has sickened millions, mostly in Asia and Africa, is on the verge of being done in not by sophisticated medicine but by aggressive public health efforts in some of the poorest and most remote parts of the world. Read More »

August 29, 2012
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, South Asia, International, and Public Health
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Ebola Phone Theft: Man Steals From Quarantined Uganda Hospital Patient, Contracts Virus

(Huffington Post) Don’t do the crime if you can’t contract the virus. A man stole a cell phone from an isolation ward in Uganda two weeks ago, but realized he had more than the police to worry about when he began showing symptoms of Ebola, the Daily Monitor reports. The unidentified, 40-year-old thief took a Read More »

August 28, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, North America, Agents & Toxins, and Public Health
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In war with ‘superbugs,’ Cedars-Sinai researchers see new weapon: Immune-boosting vitamin

(EurekAlert) Cedars-Sinai researchers have found that a common vitamin may have the potential to provide a powerful weapon to fight certain “superbugs,” antibiotic-resistant staph infections that health experts see as a threat to public health. The research, published in the September 2012 edition of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, found that high doses of the Read More »

August 28, 2012
| Filed under North America, Public Health, and Research
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How Does The Flu Virus Disrupt Our Natural Defense System?

(Medical News Today) According to a study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, researchers at Northwestern University have identified one of the ways the influenza virus disarms our natural defense system. The virus decreases the production of key immune system-regulating proteins in human cells that help attack the invader. In order to do this, Read More »

August 28, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, and Public Health
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Dead Bacteria Terror Tests Begin on MBTA Red Line on Wednesday

(BeaconHillPatch) The MBTA and Homeland Security plan to release dead bacteria into three Red Line stations this summer to test bioterror sensors. The tests begin Wednesday morning at 1 a.m., according to Fox 25. The bacteria, bacillus subtilis, is not infectious even in its live form, according to government documents. The bacteria is used in Read More »