Xaver Xylophon for NPR
Our first germs didn’t do much damage, until we gave up our hunter-gatherer ways and started farming. Watch Episode 1 of a three-part animated miniseries on the battle between humans and germs.
Watch the video NPR.org
AMISOM via Flickr
The world’s first malaria vaccine has just passed an important hurdle. The vaccine, which researchers have been working on for 30 years, has been given a green light by European regulators.
Read more at iflscience.com.
CDC/Science Source
Travelers are bringing a nasty bacterial disease to the U.S. and spreading it to others. The bacteria cause bad diarrhea and are touch to treat because they’re resistant to the top antibiotic.
Read more at NPR.org.
A new study suggests that Swedish kids growing up in families that wash their dishes by hand are less likely to develop certain allergies than those families with dishwashers. These findings are the latest support to the “hygiene hypothesis” that proposes a lack of childhood exposure to infectious agents and parasites increases susceptibility to allergic diseases by suppressing the natural development of the immune system. But there may be more to it…
Read more at NPR.org.
The New England Journal of Medicine has published an interactive graphic to track the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The map contains information on past outbreaks too as well as basic description of the disease, how it spreads, etc. You can view the graphic on the NEJM website.
“A health specialist prepares to work in an isolation ward where patients displaying symptoms of Ebola are held at the Doctors Without Borders facility in Guekedou, Guinea.” Source
A recent outbreak of Ebola in Guinea has experts worried and nearby West African countries watching their borders. Read about why — and what’s being done at Al Jazeera America (International W.H.O. says fight against West Africa Ebola outbreak just beginning) or listen at NPR (The Ebola Outbreak 3 Weeks In: Dire But Not Hopeless).