On October 24, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced plans to produce millions of doses of experimental Ebola vaccines by the end of 2015, with hundreds of thousands ready halfway through the year. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO assistant director-general for health systems and innovation, said that although vaccines are not magic bullets, they may be a good part […]
Diesel exhaust particles are one of the major components of air pollution. These particles are suspended in the air, and are microscopic — less than one-fifth the thickness of a human hair. As we breathe, they are drawn deep into the lungs. Because diesel-powered engines are everywhere, it is almost impossible to avoid them. People […]
In March 2013, a new flu virus — the H7N9 — was identified in China. By early May, before retreating and disappearing, it had infected 131 people and killed 26 of them. However, a few months ago (January 17, 2104), the New York Times reported that “China is disclosing a steadily growing number of cases of H7N9 bird flu, including […]
Stress is part of life — but while a little bit of it (good stress) may keep us active and alert, and sometimes even motivate us, the long-term type (bad stress) can have negative effects on our health. Elevated blood pressure and heart disease are just some examples of the so-called “stress-related diseases”. In addition […]
Visceral leishmaniasis, known in India as kala-azar or black fever, is a parasitic disease that kills an estimated 500,000 people a year, 90 percent of them in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Brazil and Sudan. In India, the disease is endemic in the northeastern Indian State of Bihar – the epicenter of kala-azar in the region – and in Jharkhand, Uttar […]
Odorless and tasteless, arsenic lurks everywhere – in rice and in chicken breasts, in apple juice and in drinking water. It’s all around, but not in amounts sufficient to cause acute (short-term) poisoning. On the other hand, chronic (long-term) exposure to lower arsenic doses occurs way too often, and may lead to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers and other human disorders. Contamination of drinking water by […]
Injuries and infections are facts of life, and we need to deal with them. Thus, it’s not surprising we have developed efficient and magnificent sets of mechanisms that defend us from whatever is perceived as a danger, for example micro-organisms and irritant substances. Inflammation (or inflammatory response) is one of these sets of mechanisms, and not only […]
The mammalian gastrointestinal tract harbors a complex community of microbes — called the gut microbiome — that is essential for the development of the immune system. Despite its complexity, even the presence or absence of some of the many bacterial species that form this community may lead to a variety of disorders of the immune […]
Thanks to their keen sense of smell, African giant pouched rats can be trained to detect landmines and tuberculosis. Two weeks ago, Maarten Boersema reported in The Scientist that “It takes about nine months to fully train a tuberculosis-detection rat. But once trained, the rat can screen thousands of patients every month.” Rats are not the only disease-sniffing […]
We’ve known for a long time that there are good bacteria and bad bacteria. Now, we’re coming to realize there are also good viruses and bad viruses. The good viruses — good for us, that is — are viruses that infect and kill bacteria. These viruses are called bacteriophage or phage. It turns out that, […]