Viruses, Infections & Disease, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 28, 2019

CDC Reports Unusual Spike in Rare Tick-Borne Disease in Oregon

Four people in Oregon were infected with a rare tick-borne virus, known as Colorado tick fever, in a single month, according to a new report. That's an unusually high number of cases for the state, which typically sees one or fewer cases of Colorado tick fever per year, according to...

Jan 31, 2019

A Cactus Prick Likely Caused Former NHL Player's Life-Threatening Infection

A former NHL player developed a life-threatening infection after a spiky cactus pierced his leg, according to news reports. Fifty-year-old Lyle Odelein, who retired from the NHL in 2006 after a nearly two-decade career, was playing golf in Arizona in March 2018 when he walked into the rough to retrieve...

Jan 31, 2019

Measles Outbreak Spurs Vaccination Surge in Anti-Vaxxer Hotspot

Weeks after a hotspot for anti-vaxxers turned into a hotspot for measles infections, vaccination rates have surged in the area, according to news reports. Last month, following 50 confirmed cases and 11 suspected cases of the measles, Clark County, Washington, declared a public health emergency. Now, residents of the area...

Dec 31, 2018

Doctors Thought a Woman Was Having a Panic Attack. She Actually Had Rabies.

When a Virginia woman went to the emergency room with shortness of breath, anxiety, sleeping troubles and difficulty swallowing water, doctors thought she was having a panic attack. But her symptoms were actually due to something much rarer: she had a rabies infection — one that would prove fatal —...

Dec 31, 2018

Here's How 'Flesh-Eating' Bacteria Feast on Your Flesh

Flesh-eating bacteria can cause serious infections that can result in loss of limbs and even death. Now, a new study reveals just how the bacteria thrive deep in muscle tissue and cause such severe disease. The study focused on bacteria called group A Streptococcus, the most common cause of flesh-eating...

Nov 30, 2020

COVID-19 may have arrived in US by December 2019

COVID-19 may have already arrived in the United States by December 2019, before the disease was even identified in China, a new study suggests. The study researchers, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), analyzed more than 7,000 blood donations collected by the American Red Cross in nine...

Nov 30, 2020

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine starts to work just 10 days after 1st dose

Pfizer's new COVID-19 vaccine starts to protect people from the novel coronavirus just 10 days after the first dose, according to new documents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The documents were released on Tuesday (Dec. 8), two days before a meeting of the FDA's vaccine advisory panel,...

Nov 30, 2020

COVID-19 vaccines: The new technology that made them possible

Days before her 91st birthday, Margaret Keenan became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials. Keenan, who was sporting a polka-dot cardigan over a festive shirt, was given the first dose of a two-dose vaccine at the University Hospital Coventry in...

Nov 30, 2020

Fast-spreading UK coronavirus variant: All your questions answered

Editor's Note: This story was last updated on Feb. 1, 2021. A scary new strain of coronavirus, innocuously named B.1.1.7, has recently exploded across southeast England, prompting the government to tighten lockdowns on the region. Though we don't know all the details, experts are increasingly confident it is more easily...

Oct 31, 2020

AI can detect COVID-19 from the sound of your cough

People with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic can spread the disease without any outward signs that they're sick. But a newly developed AI, with a keen algorithmic ear, might be able to detect asymptomatic cases from the sounds of people's coughs, according to a new study. A group of researchers at...

Oct 31, 2020

US tops 10 million coronavirus cases

The United States reached an astonishing milestone today (Nov. 9): 10 million total coronavirus cases have been diagnosed since the start of the pandemic, with case counts accelerating dramatically in recent weeks. The country's total now stands at just over 10 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. It took just...

Oct 31, 2020

Wearing a cloth face mask protects you and others from getting COVID-19, CDC says

Cloth face masks offer two-way protection, benefitting both the wearer and those around them, according to updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Previously, the CDC had emphasized the role of cloth face masks in blocking the release of infectious virus particles when the wearer coughs,...

Oct 31, 2020

COVID-19 reveals how obesity harms the body in real time

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust the obesity epidemic once again into the spotlight, revealing that obesity is no longer a disease that harms just in the long run but one that can have acutely devastating effects. New studies and information confirm doctors’ suspicion that this virus takes advantage of a...

Oct 31, 2020

Speed of COVID vaccine testing did not compromise safety, Fauci says

Moderna and Pfizer both recently announced that their coronavirus vaccines were around 95% effective in preventing COVID-19. Just one year ago, not a single person knew that the novel coronavirus existed. This incredible speed in vaccine development is unprecedented. But it did not compromise the safety of the vaccine or...

Oct 31, 2020

Rural hospitals are under siege from COVID-19. Here's what doctors are facing, in their own words.

It’s difficult to put into words how hard COVID-19 is hitting rural America’s hospitals. North Dakota has so many cases, it’s allowing asymptomatic COVID-19-positive nurses to continue caring for patients to keep the hospitals staffed. Iowa and South Dakota have teetered on the edge of running out of hospital capacity....