Health & Medicine

  1. Health & Medicine

    Nongene DNA boosts AIDS risk

    People with a newly discovered genetic variation are more vulnerable to HIV infection.

    By Patrick Barry
  2. Health & Medicine

    Salmonella seeks sweets

    A sugarlike substance in the roots of lettuce may attract food-poisoning bacteria.

    By Janet Raloff
  3. Health & Medicine

    Earache microbe shows resistance

    A strain of bacterium that causes middle ear infection is resistant to all antibiotics currently approved for the ailment.

    By Nathan Seppa
  4. Health & Medicine

    Mother Knows All

    Fragments of a fetus' genetic material that leak into a pregnant woman's bloodstream reveal details of early fetal development.

    By Sarah Williams
  5. Health & Medicine

    Plugging Leaks: Manipulating receptors may impede sepsis

    Manipulation of signaling proteins on blood vessels may help combat sepsis, an often fatal condition.

    By Nathan Seppa
  6. Health & Medicine

    Early Arrival: HIV came from Haiti to United States

    New analysis of 25-year-old blood samples indicates that HIV reached the United States in about 1969, 12 years before AIDS was first formally described.

    By Brian Vastag
  7. Health & Medicine

    HIV-positive people getting heavier

    With drug treatment, HIV-infected people no longer suffer from wasting but are about as overweight or obese as the U.S. population as a whole.

    By Brian Vastag
  8. Health & Medicine

    ‘Knuckle fever’ reaches Italy

    A virus that causes debilitating fever and joint pain has spread from Africa to Italy, where it has caused at least 284 cases of illness.

    By Brian Vastag
  9. Health & Medicine

    Twice bitten

    Repeat episodes of Lyme disease are more likely caused by a second tick bite rather than by a return of the original illness.

    By Brian Vastag
  10. Health & Medicine

    Ulcer bug may prevent asthma

    Children whose stomachs carry the bacterium Helicobacter pylori are at lower risk for asthma than children who don't have the bug.

    By Brian Vastag
  11. Health & Medicine

    Looking for Biomarkers: Protein signature may warn of impending Alzheimer’s disease

    Measuring the amounts of certain proteins in the blood might provide early warning of Alzheimer's disease.

    By Nathan Seppa
  12. Health & Medicine

    Beware the Starlings: Common birds can carry avian influenza

    Common songbirds such as starlings may be able to carry and spread avian influenza.

    By Brian Vastag