Disease

A scientist separates blood cells from plasma cells to isolate any Ebola RNA in order to test for the virus at the European Mobile Laboratory in Gueckedou, Guinea.

Africa's Ongoing Ebola Outbreak Is the Worst the World Has Ever Seen

Since February there have been 544 laboratory-confirmed cases of the disease in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia

Malaria Parasites Might Make Their Infected Hosts Smell Tastier for Mosquitoes

So far, the finding has only been shown in mice

5 Diseases You Can Get From Being Bitten—By A Human

As Uruguayan soccer player Luis Suárez demonstrated yesterday, sometimes people bite others. Here are five diseases you can get from human chomps.

The tiny little parasitic wasp Tamarixia radiata.

Scientists Think These Creepy Wasps Are Going to Save Oranges

Biological control—importing predators to fight an invasive species—has a nasty track record

When Homo Sapiens Began to Emerge, Herpes Was Already Waiting

Herpes first evolved in chimpanzees before colonizing the cells of Homo erectus

Leaves of the plant Plantago lanceolata infected with powdery mildew.

What the Spread Of A Plant Mildew Tells Us About Forests

Fragmenting habitats into smaller pieces may let diseases spread more easily, a new study finds

Forest in British Columbia that has borne both fire and beetle infestations

Beetles Have Destroyed 38,000 Square Miles of Forest

As part of this year’s farm bill, the United States Forest Service will try to rehabilitate beetle-infested forests

The Fourth Case of Mad Cow Disease Ever Reported in the U.S. Was Just Confirmed

The victim likely picked up the disease while traveling abroad

A chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) mother resting with her children in western Uganda.

Ebola Vaccine For Chimps Could Help Save Wild Populations

A trial of a chimp vaccine highlights debates over vaccinating wild populations and using chimps in medical research

Can Free Crack Pipe Kits—Like Free Heroin Needles—Reduce Disease Transmission?

A group in San Francisco plans to hand out free crack pipes, but the city is not convinced it'll help reduce the spread of HIV and Hep C

Fewer Honeybees Died Last Year, But Not Enough to Save Them

If losses continue at the same rate, honey bees in the U.S. won't survive on the long term

Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken by Josse Lieferinxe

The Black Death Actually Improved Public Health

Analysis of skeletons from before and after the height of the epidemic yields surprising results

At the Mpala research facility in Kenya, scientists can use fences to exclude large animals, such as zebras, from ecosystems to study the effect of their absence.

How Will Wildlife Loss Affect Diseases That Jump From Animals to Humans?

In an east African case study, scientists found that taking large wildlife out of an ecosystem increases the number of disease-infested rodents

What’s Killing the Sea Stars?

Scientists inch closer to the cause of the mysterious "sea star wasting syndrome"

Mosquitoes Kill More Humans Than Human Murderers Do

From a human perspective, this makes them the deadliest animal in the world by far

A Fully Vaccinated Woman Contracted And Then Spread the Measles

This is the first time health officials have encountered a Typhoid Mary-like situation for measles

A vertebrae from the remains, with a close-up of a cancerous growth (indicated by white arrows).

This 3,000-Year-Old Human Skeleton Reveals the Earliest Known Example of Cancer

Skeletal scans of the remains, which were found in Sudan, shows the cancer had spread before the victim died

An Anopheles mosquito, the blood-sucking culprit that delivers malaria.

As Temperatures Rise, Malaria Will Invade Higher Elevations

Malaria is already infiltrating highland areas in Colombia and Ethiopia that were previously protected from the disease by cool mountain temperatures

Camels Have Been Carrying Around a Deadly, Contagious Virus For At Least Twice As Long As Anyone Realized

Over the past twenty years, cases of the MERS virus might have gone undetected in infected humans

Barro Colorado Island, on the Panama Canal, is home to at least 74 bat species. A group of German researchers is studying them all to understand the spread of diseases.

A Night in the Forest Capturing Bats

Our intrepid reporter joins tropical bat researchers in the field one night and gains some appreciation for their fangs

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