Disease and Illnesses

CellScope automatically detects and quantifies infection by parasitic worms in a drop of blood.

This Smartphone Microscope Uses Video to Spot Moving Parasites

A team of Berkeley bioengineers has created CellScope, a mobile phone attachment that can quickly test blood for tropical diseases

This 1,500 year old skeleton from the Anglo-Saxon town of Great Chesterford was a young man who had leprosy

This 1,500-Year-Old Skeleton May Belong to the Man That Brought Leprosy to Britain

Modern techniques show that the young man was in his 20s and likely Scandinavian

Scientists Are Stopping Malaria With Viagra

Viagra can help boost the spleen’s ability to filter out infected blood cells

Most Countries Have No Plans For When Antibiotics Stop Working

World Health Organization sounds the alarm on “one of the biggest threats to the future of global health”

It’s Official: Rubella Has Been Eradicated From the Americas

Health officials confirm that rubella no longer originates in North or South America

This device makes it possible to communicate with your mind.

This Stroke of Genius Could Allow You to Write With Your Brain

Not Impossible Labs has developed a breakthrough approach to communication

Better HIV Prevention Could Be Leading to Higher Syphilis Rates

Syphilis rates increased by 13 percent between 2012 and 2013

Scientists are sharpening their focus on ways to revive a memory gone awry.

Brain Implants May Be Able to Shock Damaged Memories Back Into Shape

With funding from the Defense Department, scientists have begun work on devices that would use electric pulses to realign a memory process gone awry

MIT Researchers Think They Can Spot Early Signs of Parkinson's in the Way People Type

By monitoring how long we hold down keystrokes, it may be possible to detect neurological diseases years before other symptoms appear

The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia left a huge crater, along with a sometimes unexpected legacy.

200 Years After Tambora, Some Unusual Effects Linger

Frankenstein, famine poetry, polar exploration—the "year without a summer" was just the beginning

What’s Causing This Village’s Weird Sleeping Sickness Epidemic?

About a quarter of residents in a small town in Kazakhstan have fallen into a deep sleep for days at a time—and no one knows why

Americans Can’t Agree on What Shapes Health

New research shows that Americans think a broad variety of factors can make us sick

A nine-banded armadillo.

How Armadillos Can Spread Leprosy

These tank-like creatures are the only animals besides us known to carry leprosy

New York saw 4,500 annual cases by 1907. Mallon was linked to 47, and 3 deaths.

The Frightening Legacy of Typhoid Mary

With concerns about infectious disease in the news, a look back at history's most famous carrier

The lab-on-a-chip gets the power it needs for testing though the headphone jack on a smartphone, and sends the results through the port to the phone for computation, display and storage.

This $34 Smartphone-Assisted Device Could Revolutionize Disease Testing

A new low-cost device that plugs into a smartphone could cut down on expensive lab tests

How Space Travel Can Damage Our Immune Systems

Research finds that living in low-gravity conditions can take a toll that goes far beyond an aversion to dehydrated foods

Why One Nonprofit Wants You to Sell Them Your Poop

A qualified candidate could make thousands of dollars a year selling their waste to an organization preparing fecal transplants for the ill

This temporary tattoo could save diabetics from the daily annoyance of pin pricks to their fingers.

Hacking the Human Body With Temporary Tattoos and Tiny Implants

Using electrical charges to treat diseases, from diabetes to obesity, is picking up speed

Doctors, army officers and reporters protect themselves during the 1918 pandemic.

The Flu Has Been Making People Sick for At Least 500 Years

The 1918 flu pandemic gets all the headlines, but the malady is thought to have first appeared in the 16th century—and possibly earlier

Health workers wearing protective clothing prepare to carry an abandoned dead body presenting with Ebola symptoms at Duwala market in Monrovia August 17, 2014.

More Than 3,000 People Have Died of Ebola in the Past Two Months

The viral outbreak doesn't appear to be slowing

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