Drug-Resistant Malaria Is On The Verge Of Spreading Into India
In Southeast Asia, the malaria parasite has been steadily building resistance to the drug that's used to treat it. This…
The U.S. Will Stop Funding Research into Making Mutant Super Viruses
Should scientists be allowed to create mutant viruses deadlier than natural ones? The White House waded into this…
Why We Still Don't Have an Ebola Vaccine
Yesterday, the CDC confirmed the first Ebola case diagnosed in the US. The patient, who recently traveled to Liberia,…
A Medical Student Fears Liberia Is "Destined For Extinction"
We've read the news reports and seen the photos. But none of it quite prepares you for the terror expressed by a young…
How would a pandemic spread through our air transportation routes?
If an extremely virulent infection started in Atlanta and spread thanks to folks traveling by plane, what path would…
Watch how scary fast an epidemic would spread disease across the world
If you want to put on a surgical mask, rubber gloves, goggles, ear muffs and trap yourself in a plastic bubble after…
It's still too early to freak out about bird flu
A total of eight people have now died following exposure to H7N9, a lethal new strain of bird flu that by last count…
Why Even Almighty Google Couldn't Keep Track of the Flu
The flu, as many are unfortunately aware, hit especially hard this year, and Google's Flu Trends map only confirmed and…
Deadly meningitis outbreak is being caused by a fungus in steroid shots
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed tonight that a terrifying meningitis outbreak…
This graph of whooping cough cases in Washington State should scare the crap out of you
The United States is in the middle of its worst whooping cough (aka pertussis) outbreak in over half a century, but few…
The places where an epidemic is most likely to start spreading in the United States
When humans travel, diseases travel with them. Events like the 2003 SARS outbreak and 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic have…
The roads in North Dakota are giving people cancer
In Dunn County, North Dakota, the roads can kill you. In fact, anything you do to disturb rocks in the area, like…
How to stop a pandemic (and how to make it worse)
We already have many of the medicines we need to kill pandemic diseases. But to stop a pandemic itself, we need math.
A "diabetes belt" runs throughout the southern United States
Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, and now we know just where the disease it at its worst:…
Swine flu and bird flu may team up to create a supervirus
In 2009, swine flu created a minor pandemic, only killing about 15,000 people but infecting millions more. The avian…
The virus progenitor of HIV may be millions of years old, which could be a problem
Simian Immunodeficiency Virus, the non-lethal ape predecessor to HIV, might just be much older than current estimates,…
Is Chronic Fatigue a Communicable Disease?
Though chronic fatigue syndrome is common, doctors still don't know what causes it. A study published today in Science,…
Eleven Visions of Life After the Great Epidemic
Feeling worried about the impending swine flu epidemic? Just to make you feel more panicked, we've put together a list…
Seeing Viral Spread of Target Stores Across U.S. Somehow Not as Terrifying as Wal-Mart
Seeing Wal-Mart spread across the U.S. in that video last month reminded me of a virus consuming mankind, but this Targe…
More Mad Cow Disease on the Way, Say Scientists
A new case of CJD, or mad cow disease, has prompted scientists in the UK to warn that a new wave of the deadly…