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Why is it that the origins of many serious diseases remain a mystery? In considering that question, a scientist at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has come up with a unified molecular view of the indivisible unit of life, the cell, which may provide an answer. Reviewing findings from multiple disciplines, Jamey Marth, Ph.D., UC San Diego Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, realized that only 68 molecular building blocks are used to construct these four fundamental components of cells: the nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), proteins, glycans...

Rural Kanpur is fighting its most frightening scourge — a mystery disease that has left a long line of bodies in its trail and doesn’t seem anywhere finished. What started from one village two weeks ago has now spread to 350 and has so far claimed 160 lives. Thousands more are bed-ridden. On an average, 15 to 20 people have been dying every day; Saturday saw the highest toll in a day: 24. The district’s health department is somewhat confused about the nature of the disease that has struck. At the beginning, the diagnosis was viral fever. Then doctors concluded...

FRESNO, Calif. — Federal inspectors at U.S. border crossings repeatedly turned back filthy, disease-ridden shipments of peppers from Mexico in the months before a salmonella outbreak that sickened 1,400 people was finally traced to Mexican chilies.Yet no larger action was taken. Food and Drug Administration officials insisted as recently as last week that they were surprised by the outbreak because Mexican peppers had not been spotted as a problem before. But an Associated Press analysis of FDA records found that peppers and chilies were consistently the top Mexican crop rejected by border inspectors for the last year.

Religions thrived to protect our ancestors against the ravages of disease, according to a radical new evolutionary theory of the genesis of faith. Prof Richard Dawkins the atheist and sceptic, has condemned religion as a "virus of the mind" but it seems that people became religious for good reason - actually to avoid infection by viruses and other diseases - according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences. Dr Corey Fincher and Prof Randy Thornhill of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, come to this conclusion after studying why religions are far more...

Enlarge ImageAdaptive behavior? The huge variety in religious practice--including this shaman ritual in Ecuador--may be linked to infectious diseases.Credit: Reuters The same diseases that plague humanity may also drive one of the fundamental elements of human culture, a new study suggests. A statistical analysis shows an association between higher rates of infectious disease and religious diversity around the world. The findings have already sparked debate within the academic community; critics are questioning the validity of the interpretation, and supporters say that the finding could offer a new perspective on why religions exist and what role they play in society....

An immigration activist is questioning the White House decision to give foreign nationals with HIV/AIDS a special waiver to obtain short-term visas to enter the country. At a recent White House press briefing, Press Secretary Dana Perino was asked if President Bush agrees with a call by Senators John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) and Gordon Smith (R-Oregon) for the lifting of a ban on immigration into the U.S. for those who have HIV or AIDS. Perino said the president has directed the Secretary of State to request that the Secretary of Homeland Security initiate a rulemaking to propose a categorical waiver for...

Immigrants infected with HIV may no longer be banned from living in the U.S. for the first time in more than 20 years. A $50 billion Senate bill (SB 2731) intended to combat AIDS in Africa and other impoverished areas may effectively repeal a 1987 ban prohibiting travel and immigration for people infected with HIV. The U.S. is one of several countries to have such a rule, including Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Russia, the Associated Press reports. Supporters of the proposal say the policy is dated and must be eliminated. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, said even China has lifted...

Lyme Disease Bacterium Came From Europe Before Ice AgeThe blacklegged tick Ixodes pacificus, a known vector for Borrelia burgdorferi, the pathogen responsible for Lyme disease. (Credit: CDC/ James Gathany; William Nicholson) ScienceDaily (June 30, 2008) — Researchers at the University of Bath have discovered that a bacterium that causes Lyme disease originated in Europe, rather than in North America as previously thought. The bacterium responsible for Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, originated in America, or so researchers thought. Now, however, a team from the University of Bath has shown that this bug in fact came from Europe, originating from before the...

New research links drinking lowfat milk to lower risk for heart disease Grabbing as little as one glass of lowfat or fat free milk could help protect your heart, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers found that adults who had at least one serving of lowfat milk or milk products each day had 37 percent lower odds of poor kidney function linked to heart disease compared to those who drank little or no lowfat milk. To determine heart disease risk, researchers from several universities in the United States and Norway measured the...

ONCE you become accustomed to gas at $4 a gallon, brace yourself for the next shocking retail threshold: bananas reaching $1 a pound. At that price, Americans may stop thinking of bananas as a cheap staple, and then a strategy that has served the big banana companies for more than a century — enabling them to turn an exotic, tropical fruit into an everyday favorite — will begin to unravel. The immediate reasons for the price increase are the rising cost of oil and reduced supply caused by floods in Ecuador, the world’s biggest banana exporter. But something larger is...

Now in June, just under two months before the start of the Olympics games, I have been hard pressed to find any news stories about EV71. The story seems to have dropped 'off the radar' as people have focused their attention on the earthquake relief effort. When I ask Chinese people about the virus, some of them give me a strange look and ask 'what in the world' I am talking about. Others just smile and tell me that they have no idea what happened to the virus; many assume that the government 'cured' it. Others tell me that they...

Pets can serve as wonderful companions – and owning one certainly has many physical and mental health benefits. However, with the summer months upon us, it is likely your pets will be spending more time outdoors, leaving them prone to zoonotic diseases – diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans. A Corpus Christi, Texas, man and his daughter spent weeks in the hospital because of a diseased cockatiel bought from a PetSmart store, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the man’s family. [Snip] The following are common diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans: Parasites...

Guzzling coffee may cut heart disease 22:00 16 June 2008 NewScientist.com news service Ewen Callaway A strong cup of coffee in the morning can feel like a life saver. Now, one of the largest and longest studies of coffee drinking suggests that coffee may indeed boost your lifespan – providing you drink enough of the stuff, that is. The study tracked 129,000 men and women over two decades. It found that people who consumed several cups of coffee every day were less likely to die of heart disease than those who shied away from the stuff. Heart disease is an...

Eating Fish And Foods With Omega-3 Fatty Acids Linked To Lower Risk Of Age-related Eye Disease"Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe vision loss among elderly people," they write as background information in the article. New treatments for AMD are potentially risky and treat only certain forms of the disease. "Thus, primary prevention of AMD by modifying risk factors (e.g., cigarette smoking) remains an important public health strategy." Elaine W-T. Chong, M.B.B.S., of the University of Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues conducted a systematic review of studies published before May 2007 evaluating the fish consumption and overall omega-3...

While Chinese and Indian government-backed companies continue to produce DDT for their own public health programmes, and for export, no western company has produced DDT for over a decade. Major chemical companies such as Bayer, Dow Chemical, Du Pont and BASF produce alternative products, and have incentives to see DDT phased out. Bayer actually agitated against the use of DDT, abusing its position as private sector delegate to the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, as reported in the Financial Times. AFM was alone among advocacy groups to raise this as a concern. The reality is that DDT is probably the most...

Friendly gut bugs could fight diabetes Last Updated: 12:01am BST 26/05/2008 A new study suggests that microbes in the gut could help fight diabetes. Roger Highfield reports. Probiotic drinks containing certain kinds of "friendly bacteria" could help prevent adult diabetes according to a new study. Now a new insight into the disease has come from scientists focusing on the microbes in the gut, which outnumber the cells in the body and play a crucial role in extracting calories, vitamins and nutrients from food. Consuming excess calories usually spurs what scientists call insulin resistance, when cells in the body that normally...

BROWNSVILLE - The origin of drug-resistant bacteria's recent outbreak at Cameron County hospitals is stumping health officials. Similar outbreaks of the opportunistic Acinetobacter baumannii have been possibly linked to war veterans. But Dr. Brian Smith of the Texas Department of State Health Services said Friday that the source of the local AB outbreaks was still unknown. And while U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention studies suggests the bacteria could be linked to war veterans, there is no evidence that the local outbreak could have originated from a military veteran who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, Smith said. In an...

Blood Cholesterol Levels Predict Risk Of Heart Disease Due To Hormone Therapy, Study Shows ScienceDaily (May 25, 2008) — A research study has found that a simple blood test may indicate whether post-menopausal hormone therapies present an elevated risk of a heart attack. The study, part of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, was conducted in 40 centers nationwide and included 271 cases of coronary heart disease in the first four years of the trials of estrogen alone and of estrogen plus progestin. Paul F. Bray,...

Research Advances May Help Prevent And Improve Diagnosis Of Celiac Disease ScienceDaily (May 21, 2008) — For those suffering from celiac disease, there may be good news on the horizon. New research presented at Digestive Disease Week® 2008 (DDW®) will discuss the latest advancements in the diagnosis and prevention of celiac sprue. "At this time, the only effective treatment for celiac disease is a lifelong gluten-free diet, a lifestyle that is difficult for many patients to manage," said Peter H. Green, MD, Columbia University Medical School. "Unfortunately, many people are unaware that they have celiac disease, and if left untreated,...

Sen. Edward Kennedy had two seizures over the weekend, not one as originally reported, his father-in-law told WBZ Monday. Kennedy was taken first to Cape Cod Hospital Saturday morning after having a seizure and was later transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital for further examination. During the helicopter ride to Mass. General, Edmund Reggie said Kennedy had a second seizure. "He had a seizure in the helicopter. You think that would be bad, but it's good the doctors said... By flailing his arms and moving his arms and legs and head, it showed he was not a stroke victim." Kennedy's spokeswoman...

SAN FRANCISCO - The California Supreme Court has overturned a gay marriage ban in a ruling that would make the nation's largest state the second one to allow gay and lesbian weddings. The justices' 4-3 decision Thursday says domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage. Chief Justice Ron George wrote the opinion. The city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and lesbian couples and gay rights groups sued in March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco's monthlong same-sex wedding march. The case before the court involved a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn a voter-approved law...

BAGRAM, Afghanistan, May 8, 2008 – Medical leaders from coalition forces and international medical organizations gathered at the Jirga Center here May 5 for an all-day seminar to discuss infectious diseases that plague the Afghan population. Army Lt. Col. (Dr.) Mark McGrail, a surgeon with Combined Task Force 101, gives the opening remarks at an infectious disease seminar at the Jirga Center in Bagram, Afghanistan, May 5, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Pvt. Tamara Gabbard  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The seminar featured presentations by experts from Afghanistan’s Public Health Ministry and the World Health Organization. “The purpose...

BEIJING (Reuters) - A deadly virus has spread rapidly in eastern China, killing at least 21 children and infecting nearly 3,000, Xinhua news agency said on Friday.

Vitamin D May Protect Against Peripheral Artery DiseasePeople obtain vitamin D by making it themselves (through skin exposure to sunlight), by ingesting foods such as fish and fortified dairy products that contain vitamin D, or by taking dietary supplements. (Credit: iStockphoto/Nikolay Suslov) ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2008) — People with low vitamin D levels may face an increased risk for peripheral artery disease (PAD), according to researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. PAD is a common disease that occurs when arteries in the legs become narrowed by fatty deposits, causing pain and numbness and impairing the...

WASHINGTON -- The only U.S. facility allowed to research the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease experienced several accidents with the feared virus, the Bush administration acknowledged Friday. A 1978 release of the virus into cattle holding pens on Plum Island, N.Y., triggered new safety procedures. While that incident was previously known, the Homeland Security Department told a House committee there were other accidents inside the government's laboratory. The accidents are significant because the administration is likely to move foot-and-mouth research from the remote island to one of five sites on the U.S. mainland near livestock herds. This has raised concerns about...

f 1 cow shows symptoms, the government plan is to shut down all exports and livestock movement..all. Herds would start to be quarantined. And finally, herds would start to be slaughtered. The government will come in and kill herds within a certain radius of miles. The cattle may be perfectly healthy, but they will not test them, they will slaughter them.

Technique Traces Origins Of Disease Genes In Mixed Human Populations ScienceDaily (Apr. 9, 2008) — A team of researchers from Washington University in St. Louis and the Israeli Institute of Technology (Technion) in Haifa has developed a technique to detect the ancestry of disease genes in hybrid, or mixed, human populations. The technique, called expected mutual information (EMI), determines how a set of DNA markers is likely to show the ancestral origin of locations on each chromosome. The team constructed an algorithm for the technique that selects panels of DNA markers that render the best picture of ancestral origin of...

Transmitting Prion Diseases In Milk ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2008) — Scrapie can be transmitted to lambs through milk, according to new research. The study provides important information on the transmission of this prion-associated disease and the control of scrapie in affected flocks. Scrapie is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of sheep and goats. Clinical signs include itchiness, head tremor, wool loss and skin lesions as well as changes in behaviour and gait. Timm Konold and colleagues from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, UK, investigated the transmission of scrapie by feeding milk from scrapie-affected ewes to lambs that are genetically susceptible...

Lingering Bacteria Don't Indicate Chronic Lyme Disease ScienceDaily (Apr. 3, 2008) — The bacteria that cause Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne illness in the United States, can linger in mouse tissues long after a full round of antibiotic treatment is completed, report researchers from the University of California, Davis. The scientists caution that the discovery does not suggest the presence of chronic disease, nor does it support extended use of antibiotics to treat Lyme disease in humans. Their findings are reported in the March issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. However, they say, the results of this...

Researchers from the UN University found out which business can bring a lot of profit to an investor. It is a construction business, although it does not go about the construction of large shopping malls or grocery stores. It goes about the construction of toilets. Every dollar invested in this business can bring the staggering 900-percent profit. For example, if an entrepreneur builds a 100-dollar bathroom, he or she may have the return of $900 in a certain period of time. Experts studied statistics on the issue and conducted their own research before they came to such a surprising conclusion....

A hotel located in the tourist corridor of Orlando voluntarily closed its doors on Friday after two guests contracted Legionnaires' disease, a respiratory illness that can be fatal. Guests at the Quality Suites, located at 7400 Canada Ave. near International Drive in Orlando, have been relocated because of the incident, although Orange County Health Department spokesman Dane Weister said there are no further reported cases of the disease. The hotel may be closed for about two weeks. No information about the two guests, including names, ages and whether they are related, was released. The health department is conducting an investigation...

At least one in four teenage American girls has a sexually transmitted disease, suggests a first-of-its-kind federal study that startled some adolescent-health experts. Some doctors said the numbers might be a reflection of both abstinence-only sex education and teens' own sense of invulnerabilty. Because some sexually transmitted infections can cause infertility and cancer, U.S. health officials called for better screening, vaccination and prevention. Only about half of the girls in the study acknowledged having sex. Some teens define sex as only intercourse, yet other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some diseases. Among those who admitted having...

Seven Gene Regions Linked To Celiac Disease ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2008) — Scientists who last year identified a new genetic risk factor for celiac disease, have, following continued research, discovered an additional seven gene regions implicated in causing the condition. The team, lead by David van Heel, Professor of Gastrointestinal Genetics at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, have further demonstrated that of the nine celiac gene regions now know, four of these are also predisposing factors for type 1 diabetes. Their research sheds light not only on the nature of coeliac disease, but on the common...

Mysterious Disease Claims Lives Of More Than 10,000 Bats In New York AreaBats found in a New York cave show the signs of white-nose syndrome. (Credit: Photo/ Al Hicks with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation) ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — When Jonathan Storm and Justin Boyles journeyed to New York to investigate what is killing entire colonies of bats, the two Indiana State University doctoral students found bats in crisis. Last year at four caves near Albany, N.Y., more than 10,000 bats died from a mysterious disease involving a white fungus growing on some bats’ noses, leading researchers...

In the US, most deaths are attributable to chronic afflictions, such as heart disease and cancer. Typically the medical community has attributed these diseases to accumulated damage, such as plaque formation in arteries or mutations in genes controlling cellular replication. This view is changing. Scientists are now beginning to recognize that many of these chronic illnesses are due to microbial infections. A recent report in the American Journal of Psychiatry suggests that schizophrenia, a mental illness leading to errors in perception, is associated with the pathogen, Toxoplasma gondii. "Our findings reveal the strongest association we've seen yet between infection with...

FOR A FEW FLEETING moments Monday night--what should have been vivid and affecting moments--television coverage of President Bush's final State of the Union address fastened on the image of a mother and daughter from Moshi, Tanzania. They sat, their faces alive with hope, in the first lady's box seats. Viewers were not told, and no one seemed inclined to tell them, that Tatu Msangi and her daughter Faith quite literally owe their lives to the Bush administration. After Msangi became pregnant, she went to a clinic at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center and learned she was HIV-positive. Five years ago...

Vitamin D Deficiency Study Raises New Questions About Disease And Supplements ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2008) — Low blood levels of vitamin D have long been associated with disease, and the assumption has been that vitamin D supplements may protect against disease. However, this new research demonstrates that ingested vitamin D is immunosuppressive and that low blood levels of vitamin D may be actually a result of the disease process. Supplementation may make the disease worse. In a new report Trevor Marshall, Ph.D., professor at Australia’s Murdoch University School of Biological Medicine and Biotechnology, explains how increased vitamin D intake affects...

Honeybees will die out in Britain within a decade as virulent diseases and parasites spread through the nation's hives, experts have warned. Whole colonies of bees are already being wiped out, with current methods of pest control unable to stop the problem. The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) said that if the crisis continued, honeybees would disappear completely from Britain by 2018, causing "calamitous" economic and environmental problems. It called on the Government to restart shelved research programmes and to fund new ones to try to save the insects. Tim Lovett, the association's president, said: "The situation has become insupportable and...

<p>A major new study of the "mystery disease" known as Morgellons will be launched in Northern California, federal health officials said today.</p> <p>The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente Northern California are teaming up to investigate the straight-out-of-science-fiction syndrome whose symptoms include itching, biting and crawling sensations and filaments or fibers reported to emerge from the skin.</p>

There's new hope for the five million people in the United States who live with heart failure. Scientists say they have been able to grow a rat heart in a lab. They were also successful at getting it to start beating. About 50,000 people die each year waiting for a heart donor. But that all may change thanks to a rat heart, built by scientists at the University of Minnesota. "Everyone has cells," Dr. Doris Taylor told CBN News. "What's lacking is a way to put that together in a 3-D structure that lets you create an organ," she explained....

LONDON — Plague, the disease that devastated medieval Europe, is re-emerging worldwide and poses a growing but overlooked threat, researchers warned on Tuesday. While it has only killed some 100 to 200 people annually over the past 20 years, plague has appeared in new countries in recent decades and is now shifting into Africa, Michael Begon, an ecologist at the University of Liverpool, and colleagues said. A bacterium known as Yersinia pestis causes bubonic plague, known in medieval times as the Black Death when it was spread by infected fleas, and the more dangerous pneumonic plague, spread from one person...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 /Christian Newswire/ -- Reuters has reported that, "A drug-resistant strain of potentially deadly bacteria has moved beyond the borders of U.S. hospitals and is being transmitted among gay men during sex, researchers said on Monday. "They said methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is beginning to appear outside hospitals in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles." "'Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable,' said Binh Diep, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco who led the study." According to the study, at this point, homosexual men are 13 times more...

SAN FRANCISCO, January 15, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new medical study appearing in the Annals of American Medicine shows that homosexuals are spreading a new, highly-infectious flesh-eating bacteria amongst themselves, most probably through anal intercourse. The bacterium, called MRSA USA300, is impervious to front-line antibiotics and can only be treated with rarer drugs, primarily Vancomycin. Researchers say that the bug, which is a type of staphylococcus, is primed to develop immunity to that drug as well. Infected patients may have inflammation, abscesses, and tissue loss in the affected areas. Although the bacterium does not literally "eat" the body, it manufactures...

A new variety of staph bacteria, highly resistant to antibiotics and possibly transmitted by sexual contact, is spreading among gay men in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles, researchers reported Monday. The study released online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine found the highest concentrations of infection by the drug-resistant bug in and around San Francisco's Castro district and among patients who visit health clinics that treat HIV infections in gay men in San Francisco and Boston. he study estimated that 1 in 588 residents living within the Castro neighborhood 94114 ZIP code area is infected with...

The famed Mayo Clinic offers up some signs and symptoms for narcissistic personality disorder.I'd like you to look over the list of telltale indications of this mental problem and decide for yourself if it applies to any of the presidential candidates – male or female. Now, I'm no doctor, but I think it does apply to one in particular. Because I don't want to prejudice your diagnosis, I will not say which one. Here goes: Believing that you're better than others Fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness Exaggerating your achievements or talents Expecting constant praise and admiration Believing that you're...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A drug-resistant strain of potentially deadly bacteria has moved beyond the borders of U.S. hospitals and is being transmitted among gay men during sex, researchers said on Monday. They said methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is beginning to appear outside hospitals in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles. Sexually active gay men in San Francisco are 13 times more likely to be infected than their heterosexual neighbors, the researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine. "Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable," said Binh Diep, a researcher at the...

Lack Of Vitamin D May Increase Heart Disease Risk ScienceDaily (Jan. 8, 2008) — The same vitamin D deficiency that can result in weak bones now has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, Framingham Heart Study researchers report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. "Vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased cardiovascular risk, above and beyond established cardiovascular risk factors," said Thomas J. Wang, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass. "The higher risk associated with vitamin D deficiency was particularly evident among individuals with high blood pressure." In a...

Whatever Happened To... Smallpox?Humanity stomps nature but is still vulnerable to humanity. by Stephen Ornes Once the most feared disease on the planet, smallpox killed countless people in the course of human history. The first signs of smallpox are fever and aches. Then come the disfiguring pustules, often followed by death. But there hasn’t been a case in nearly 30 years. In 1979, after an aggressive 12-year campaign of vaccination, the World Health Organization declared human beings smallpox-free. William Foege, who worked on the effort and is now a senior fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, says smallpox...

Disease Likely Cause of Utah Bird Deaths Published: 1/4/08, 6:05 PM EDT SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - About 1,500 dead birds that have washed up on the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake may have been killed by avian cholera, an expert said. Dead grebes, ducks and gulls were being sent to the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis., for examination. "If I was a betting man, I would bet it was cholera," Tom Aldrich, a migratory-bird expert at the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said Wednesday. Avian cholera doesn't affect humans, but people shouldn't...

Roundworms may infect close to a quarter of inner city black children, tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among U.S. Hispanics and other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting Americans, a U.S. expert said on Tuesday. Recent studies show many of the poorest Americans living in the United States carry some of the same parasitic infections that affect the poor in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical disease expert at George Washington University and editor-in-chief of the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Writing in the journal, Hotez...