disease

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Elephant Man Mystery May Soon Be Solved

Bleached bones have posed a problem

(Newser) - For years, doctors have tried to conclusively determine which genetic mutations caused the lumpy skin, misshapen head, and other deformities that made Joseph Merrick the Elephant Man . Now researchers hope they'll finally be able to get a definitive answer. Though they could in theory extract DNA from Merrick's...

New Mexico Teen Gets Plague
 New Mexico Teen Gets Plague 
Aug 16, 2013 3:17 AM CDT

New Mexico Teen Gets Plague

It's the first US case of 2013

(Newser) - Not long ago, authorities detected plague in a California squirrel ; now, New Mexico is home to the country's first human case of 2013. Typically, about seven Americans get the bacterial illness each year, and in this first instance, the afflicted is a 15-year-old boy. People usually contract it via...

Obesity Now Officially a Disease

AMA hopes designation will help people get treatment

(Newser) - More than a third of adults and nearly a fifth of children in the US are now officially considered to have a disease: obesity. The American Medical Association has now declared obesity to be a disease, a move it hopes will influence policy changes on the same scale that sharply...

Mystery Brain Disease Strikes Women in US

Doctors initially thought it was psychosis

(Newser) - Doctors have been wrestling with a newly discovered illness that attacks mainly young women and looks a lot like psychosis. In Philadelphia, hospitalized women appeared possessed, crying or laughing hysterically one moment and turning catatonic the next. One had seizures and left her arms stuck out in front of her....

Wind Carried Sarin Gas to Gulf War Troops

Controversial paper cites bombing of Iraqi chemical weapons depots

(Newser) - A controversial new paper may shed light on Gulf War syndrome, a collection of symptoms seen in veterans of the 1991 conflict: Chemical weapons could be to blame. The researchers assert that when US troops bombed chemical weapons depots in Iraq, the neurotoxin sarin was sent into the atmosphere then...

Consumer Reports Finds Widespread Pork Threat

Study cites bacteria, antibiotic danger

(Newser) - Much of the US pork supply is tainted with dangerous bacteria, and the antibiotics given to pigs could be boosting drug-resistant germs, a Consumer Reports study finds. Some 69% of 198 tested pork samples contained bacteria called yersinia enterocolitica, which can cause fever, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Some 3% to...

War on TB Has Backfired: Experts

WHO slow to tackle drug-resistant TB

(Newser) - For years, the World Health Organization has pushed countries to battle tuberculosis by treating those patients who could be most easily cured. The strategy has a major flaw: It's allowed drug-resistant forms of the disease to flourish, experts say. Now the WHO is reworking its strategy—but much damage...

Doctors: West Nile Virus May Have Dangerously Mutated

But CDC says it hasn't seen evidence of that

(Newser) - The West Nile virus appears to be ramping up attacks on the brain, say two doctors who have been treating sufferers of the virus for years, prompting fears the virus has mutated into a more threatening form. Mississippi doctor Art Leis tells the Washington Post that for the first time,...

Less-Regulated Pharmacies Take Heat in Meningitis Crisis

'Compounding pharmacies' make drugs with weaker oversight

(Newser) - The death toll in an ongoing meningitis outbreak has hit five, with 35 sick in six states, the AP reports. What's more, hundreds or thousands could be at risk across 23 states after receiving potentially tainted steroid injections, and health providers are rushing to warn them of the danger....

4 Dead as Meningitis Outbreak Spreads

30 sick in 5 states; disease traced to Massachusetts pharmacy

(Newser) - A meningitis outbreak linked to epidural steroid injections has now spread to five states; four victims have died, while 30 others are sick, and experts expect the numbers to continue climbing. Scientists have tied the illness to a steroid tainted with the Aspergillus fungus. All victims so far had received...

9th Person at Yosemite Contracts Hantavirus

Three have died so far from the infection

(Newser) - The National Park Service says a ninth visitor to Yosemite National Park has been infected with the rodent-borne illness hantavirus. Park officials announced the case today and said the unidentified person has recovered. Eight other visitors to the park have contracted the illness, and three of them died . The majority...

West Nile Outbreak Worst on Record

Death toll is now 92

(Newser) - Ninety-two people have been killed so far this year by the West Nile virus, and 2,118 have reported infections, making 2012 the worst year on record, according to health officials. The number of West Nile deaths spiked 25% over the past week alone, reports USA Today . Infected patients have...

We Could Soon Know Truth About Elephant Man


 We Could 
 Soon Know 
 Truth About 
 Elephant Man 
in case you missed it
Aug 25, 2012 7:15 AM CDT

We Could Soon Know Truth About Elephant Man

Genome sequencing could reveal his true ailment

(Newser) - It's been more than a century since Joseph Merrick—the so-called Elephant Man—died at age 27, but researchers still can't definitively explain the huge growths on his body. Though he was nicknamed after the parasitic infection Elephantiasis, other scientists believe he may have suffered from the congenital...

CDC Gives Grim STD Warning
 CDC Gives Grim 
 STD Warning 
Aug 9, 2012 3:32 PM CDT

CDC Gives Grim STD Warning

Changes treatment guidelines to ward off gonorrhea superbug

(Newser) - It might be time to stock up on condoms. The CDC released new guidelines for doctors today urging them to change the way they treat gonorrhea, a disease that is quickly becoming resistant to antibiotics . Doctors say nearly every drug once used to treat the STD, from penicillin onward, is...

America's Worst Airport for Spreading Disease Is ...

... New York's JFK, scientists say

(Newser) - Which US airport is most likely to spread an infectious disease during an epidemic? This won't surprise New Yorkers: It's JFK. But its top ranking has nothing to do with dirtiness, reports the New York Daily News . MIT scientists who analyzed 40 of the biggest US airports compared...

We&#39;ve Only Wiped Out One Human Disease&mdash;Until Now
We've Only Wiped Out One Human Disease—Until Now
in case you missed it
Jul 21, 2012 6:03 AM CDT

We've Only Wiped Out One Human Disease—Until Now

Guinea worm cases down 99%

(Newser) - The guinea worm is set to go the way of smallpox, becoming the second human disease to be fully wiped out—thanks in part to work by Jimmy Carter's Carter Center. "We are approaching the demise of the last guinea worm who will ever live on Earth,"...

Oregon Man Hit With Plague Could Lose Fingers

Paul Gaylord contracted rare disease from cat bite

(Newser) - One look at Paul Gaylord's hands shows why the plague is referred to as "Black Death." The 59-year-old contracted the plague after trying to take a mouse from the jaws of a choking cat, which then bit him. Now the Oregon welder's once-strong hands have been...

Mystery Disease Kills 61 Children in Cambodia

World Health Organization is investigating

(Newser) - A World Health Organization expert says it's too early to know whether a mixture of known diseases or something new is responsible for the deaths of more than 60 children in Cambodia. The mystery disease has killed 61 of the 62 children hospitalized since April, but there's no...

Vaccine Could Finally Knock Out Dengue

Disease soared during World War II

(Newser) - It's been decades since dengue fever killed thousands of US and Japanese troops in World War II—yet we still don't have an effective vaccine against it. That could be about to change, Reuters reports: A Paris company is testing just such a drug among children in Thailand,...

Aspirin May Help Prevent Skin Cancer
 Aspirin May Help 
 Prevent Skin Cancer 
study says
May 30, 2012 4:25 PM CDT

Aspirin May Help Prevent Skin Cancer

Research shows dropoff of up to 15%

(Newser) - Aspirin and other similar painkillers may ward off skin cancer, according to new research. About 20 years of skin cancer data in Denmark show that people who had taken NSAIDs—nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory painkillers—were 15% less likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma and 13% less likely to have malignant melanoma,...

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