By the time everything’s said and done, this winter’s flu season may very well be the worst in several years, and by some metrics it may even surpass the 2009 pandemic. Some experts have blamed the intensity of this year’s flu in part on a particularly poor vaccine, which was mainly based on research in Australia,…
The flu tends to be the leaky basement pipe of disease: It’s easy enough to avoid doing something about it, right up until the point it completely bursts and ruins your month. But the flu is much more deadly than a flooded basement. Even at its weakest in recent years, the virus killed at least 12,000 Americans during…
One of the white whales of vaccine research—a cure for addiction—is a very small step closer to reality. Last week, researchers working at the Walter Reed Army Center published a study showing that their experimental vaccine was able to block the euphoria-inducing effects of heroin and other commonly abused opioids in…
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vaccine critic that Donald Trump is reportedly considering to chair a committee on vaccine safety, wants vaccine advocates to “prove” they’re safe.
A mumps outbreak in Washington has health officials concerned over how to keep the disease contained. The state reported on Wednesday that there have been 278 confirmed and probable cases of mumps across five different counties since October. Now, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is getting involved…
An anti-vaccination group in Australia is facing backlash today over a Facebook post that claims vaccination is just like rape. The page, associated with the Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network, featured an image that’s offensive to pretty much anyone with eyes and the ability to read.
The study, the results of which are published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, involved a cohort of nearly 100,000 children, and is the latest in a long line of research that shows no link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism spectrum disorders.
So far as awful ways to die go, being attacked by a rabid animal then dying a slow, painful death must rank near the top. And exactly that happens to 55,000 people every year. Here's how you (or your dog) can get rabies, what it does to your body as it kills you and what you can do to ensure neither of you gets it.
There's a lot of hubbub and crap being spewed about not vaccinating your kids and letting measles creep back into our lives. The animation explaining shop Kurz Gesagt doesn't want to deal with the arguments of pseudo-science, they just want to explain what measles does inside your body. And why it's helpful for…
This print sure looks like petals (it's even called Flowers). But nope: the pattern is liver cells that have been treated with the smallpox vaccine.
Vaccines save lives and prevent untold amounts of suffering. It's that simple. And yet, still, many parents refuse to vaccinate their children. But what's it like to be a child who isn't vaccinated? Today, some people who missed out on childhood vaccinations tell us exactly.
The world's first malaria vaccine is on track to be approved by 2015, paving the way for its use by 2016. "It's on that trajectory, and the plan is to file with the European Medicines Agency in 2014," says David Kaslow, VP of product development at the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, which supported development of …
Malaria research has been advancing rapidly in recent years, and now there's even more hope: scientists have developed a vaccine that can slash malaria incidence by half, and it could be introduced to the world's worst-hit countries by 2015.
Malaria is one of the deadliest diseases on the planet, killing about 2,000 people every day. Much effort has been put into developing a vaccine, and while there have been some encouraging results, it's proved difficult to control the malaria parasites and their mosquito carriers. Now, a new vaccine actually makes…
Newly published findings reveal that, since its introduction in 2006, the HPV vaccine has reduced HPV infection rates by a massive 56% among female teenagers 14-19 years of age. Is this impressive? Enormously. Is it enough? Not even close.
Though most borderline alcoholics don't need an anti-fun vaccine for alcoholism, those that drink a little too much could probably use the world's first vaccine for alcoholism. Made by Scientists in Chile, the vaccine "works" by screwing over people who drink. Seriously, once you pump yourself with the juice, you'll…
While traditional vaccines can offer annual protection from the latest flu strains, the viruses mutate and evolve so fast that we're right back where we started the following year. That's where a revolutionary new vaccine could change everything.
Craig Venter, the über-DNA jockey who quietly sequenced the human genome using his own DNA, then made "synthetic life" by outfitting a gutted bacterium with homemade genes, says his next trick will be emailing biological molecules, using 3D biological printers. The move that could revolutionise healthcare - and…
You've maybe never heard of Bacillus Calmette–Guérin—it sounds kinda French after all, so why would you? But scratch a little deeper and you'll find that BCG, as it's commonly known, is one of the most overlooked wonder-drugs of our time.
Because flu viruses mutate so fast, the only way to stop them is to destroy their ability to evolve. That's the key to creating a universal flu vaccine... and now we may have found the secret to creating one, and wiping out the flu.
