111 Items Tagged

Disease

Corn, egg, buttermilk, sugar, baking powder…. but no niacin.

The Mistaken Case of the Killer Cornbread

For a brief time in the early 20th Century, cornmeal was unfairly blamed as the source of a terrible disease.

Mark Essig January 24, 2017

Watch How to Properly Sneeze into a Handkerchief in 1940s England

These public health trailers also teach you about the dangers of crossing the street and germs.

Lauren Young December 1, 2016

The field hospital after the Battle of Savage Station. Lack of doctors and resources meant that medical conditions were often unhygienic.

How Civil War Soldiers Gave Themselves Syphilis While Trying to Avoid Smallpox

If only someone had warned them not to take a DIY approach.

Mariana Zapata November 30, 2016

A HeroRAT is trained for the smell of TNT, which is hidden inside tea-eggs.

The Best Secret Weapon Against Landmines and Tuberculosis Is a Rat

African giant pouched rats are better mine-sniffers than dogs and faster at TB diagnosis than human doctors.

Elisabeth Waugaman November 28, 2016

An angry rhesus macaque.

You Probably Shouldn't Be Worried About This Colony of Herpes-Infected Monkeys in Florida

Still, there's a colony of herpes-infected monkeys in Florida.

Mariana Zapata November 10, 2016

Found: Vessels That Let Your Immune System Control Your Personality

The brain and lymph system are connected after all.

Sarah Laskow July 19, 2016

While Brazil Was Eradicating Zika Mosquitoes, America Made Them Into Weapons

Most of the Western hemisphere was trying to eliminate Aedes aegypti. Why not the U.S.?

Sarah Laskow June 22, 2016

Chicago, Illinois

Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium

Chicago's North Park Village was once the largest municipal sanatorium in the country.

Found: Bacteria Resistant to the Drug of Last Resort

Sarah Laskow May 27, 2016

Down the Canal Ahogada.

El Salto, Mexico

The Deadly Rio Lerma

The Rio Lerma (Chignahuapan) in El Salto, Mexico, is one of the most polluted rivers in the world. It’s covered in white foam, and falling in can kill.

The Scientist Who Discovered Sudden Oak Death Believes We Can Save the Forests

We should have taken the disease more seriously before it killed a million trees, though.

Natalie Zarrelli May 19, 2016

Scientists Just Discovered a New Vulnerability in HIV

The hunt for a vaccine is heating up.

Erik Shilling May 18, 2016

The Protein That Might Be Cancer's Undoing

Scientists say they've discovered cancer's "Achilles heel."

Erik Shilling March 4, 2016

Your body goes in here (yes, yours)

Atlanta, Georgia

CDC Museum

Tour the sci-fi-esque reality of governmental disease management.

In the Wake of the Zika Virus, Should Humans Try to Eradicate Mosquitoes?

Jessie Guy-Ryan January 31, 2016

How Thalidomide Went From Medical Disaster to Miraculous Cancer Treatment

Natalie Zarrelli January 18, 2016

Remnants of a building and a Celtic cross commemorating Irish immigrants dead of typhus

Saint John, New Brunswick

Partridge Island Quarantine Site

A complicated, forgotten beacon of hope for thousands of immigrants, "Canada's Emerald Isle" lies in ruin.

The Leper Baobob

Liwonde, Malawi

The Leper Tree

A hollowed-out baobab that became the horrific final resting place of leprosy sufferers, with gruesome evidence to prove it.