Yet another reason for moms-to-be to get a flu shot: According to a new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, vaccinating women against …
Category: Infectious Diseases
For patients with advanced hepatitis C, benefits of new drugs outweigh costs
Using a computer model of hepatitis C, Stanford researchers have determined that two new virus-targeting drugs called protease inhibitors are a cost-effective way to treat patients with …
Guest post: "Am I contagious?"
"Am I contagious?" Doctors hear this question all the time. Patients want to know if they can go back to work or school. Parents wonder …
Image of the Week: What H5N1 looks like
Earlier this week a group of researchers who altered the avian influenza virus, also known as H5N1 or "bird flu," to make it more contagious …
Examining the effectiveness of hand sanitizers
A post today on CommonHealth takes a closer look at the effectiveness of hand sanitizers when it comes to killing germs. In a thorough discussion …
Tracking infectious disease outbreaks with satellite images of the nighttime sky
Researchers at Princeton are developing an unconventional way to use satellite images of nighttime lights to monitor seasonal population migration patterns and potentially pinpointing disease …
World AIDS Day reflections: Living beyond AIDS
This week, I received a very heartening piece of news: Cyrus, one of the first orphans we met in Kenya some 10 years ago, is …
"Herd immunity" causes dramatic drop in infant chicken pox
In the early 1990s, Stanford scientist Ann Arvin, MD, led research that helped explain immune responses to varicella zoster, the virus that causes chicken pox. …
Public health experts: Now's the time to get flu shot
Over the weekend, San Francisco Chronicle writer Victoria Colliver issued a friendly reminder about flu shots: It's time to get one, folks! Her article discusses …
On World Pneumonia Day, a call for healthier stoves
Today is World Pneumonia Day, a day dedicated to raising public awareness of the nearly 1.6 million childhood pneumonia deaths that occur around the world …
African scientists recognized for developing HIV prevention method
The scene in July 2010 in Vienna was one of my most electric moments in covering science. I happened to grab a front row seat at …
Show explores scientific questions surrounding 2001 anthrax attacks
Questions still remain regarding the 2001 anthrax attacks and subsequent scientific investigation, and a group of experts will weigh in on the issues on NPR's …
Hunt or be hunted: Tracking the next big pandemics
How can we make sure what happens in the movie Contagion doesn't happen in real life? Nathan Wolfe, PhD, has some ideas, and the visiting …
Do patients carrying extra pounds need extra protection from influenza?
Prior to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, obesity was not considered an underlying health condition that might place people at greater risk of serious seasonal …
Research shows benefit of treating TB and HIV at the same time
A new study out of UCSF is showing that treating tuberculosis and HIV infections at the same time appears to be a life-saving strategy. As Erin Allday at the …
Researchers map typhoid fever with Google Earth
Advances in DNA sequencing have enabled scientists to track the spread of some diseases by measuring mutations in the pathogen's DNA when the DNA replicates. …