Diseases

An old childhood disease reared its head in Minnesota last year, infecting five young children and killing one of them, according to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The outbreak, of a disease known as "Hib" for short, is the latest of several contagious diseases making encore appearances after having been all but vanquished through immunization.

Fred Garza has been patrolling a piece of the Rio Grande for 16 years, usually riding solo on horseback, sometimes venturing to areas where his radio and cellphone have limited range. But Garza isn't looking for drug smugglers, human traffickers or illegal immigrants. He's looking for stray livestock that might be carrying a tick with a deadly disease into the United States. "If it doesn't have hooves, it's not our concern," Garza said. Garza is a veteran of the 61-member U.S.

Despite plummeting mortality rates for most infectious diseases over the last century, a group of largely overlooked bacterial, viral and parasitic infections is still plaguing the nation's poor, according to a report released this week. Many of the diseases are typically associated with tropical developing countries but are surprisingly common in poor regions of the United States, according to the analysis, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

A tiny insect that can carry a disease that kills citrus trees has been discovered just blocks south of the border in Tijuana, sending shock waves through the California citrus industry. The disease, known as citrus greening, has already killed tens of thousands of acres of orange groves in Florida and has the potential to ruin much of California's $1.2-billion citrus growing business, industry officials said.

The Senate on Wednesday approved a $48-billion program to treat and prevent AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, tripling the amount set aside in landmark legislation first passed five years ago. The legislation, approved 80 to 16, came after an impassioned debate that had stalled for weeks over objections by conservatives about the bill's cost, the role of abstinence education and control over how money is spent.

For centuries, the gruesome disease once known as leprosy separated husbands from wives and parents from children. The sick -- missing digits and limbs, their faces swollen and disfigured, their oozing sores emitting a putrid smell -- were exiled to isolated colonies and often left to die. But in a single year toward the end of the 19th century, the acts of a Norwegian doctor and a Belgian priest slowly began to redirect the fates of leprosy patients around the world.

TO most of us, tears are those wet, salty drops that come out of our eyes when we cry. To scientists who study them, they're those wet, salty, oily, mucous, protein-filled drops that lubricate our eyes and protect them from dust, debris and infection. For the most part, tears go unnoticed -- until something goes wrong. Eyes sting, burn, itch or turn red. They feel like they're full of sand or being poked with a stick.

Oysterman Jim Aguiar had never had to deal with the bacterium \o7Vibrio parahaemolyticus\f7 in his 25 years working the frigid waters of Prince William Sound. The dangerous microbe infected seafood in warmer waters, like the Gulf of Mexico. Alaska was way too cold. But the sound was gradually warming. By summer 2004, the temperature had risen just enough to poke above the crucial 59-degree mark.

A study of the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus has found that 3.4% of females in the U.S. ages 14 to 59 are infected with at least one of four viral types that could be blocked by the controversial vaccine Gardasil, researchers reported Tuesday. The study found that 3.1 million females have HPV types 6 or 11, which cause about 90% of genital warts cases, or types 16 or 18, which account for 70% of the roughly 11,000 cervical cancer cases diagnosed each year in the U.S.

To combat rising rates of syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea, Los Angeles County officials will launch a public health campaign today that uses drink coasters, murals, sidewalk chalk art and other unconventional approaches to advertise the need to get tested. The bilingual campaign is aimed at gay and bisexual men, African American women and Latinas, the groups most affected by the increase in sexually transmitted diseases, said Dr.