Medicine
Threatening Zoonoses
Posted by Wesley Dodson on August 27, 2012 Two weeks after an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda, the same disease is circulating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But the outbreaks have been caused by two distinct subtypes of virus, meaning they were not spread from one country to the other. The same thing happened in 1976, when over 500 people died…
OMFGWARBLEGARBLE! THERE IS ANOTHER AIDS!
Posted by ERV on August 24, 2012 NOH MAH GAWD!!! Mysterious Disease Leaves Patients With AIDS-like Symptons, But Not HIV Researchers have identified a mysterious new disease that has left scores of people in Asia and some in the United States with AIDS-like symptoms even though they are not infected with HIV. [bolding original] Researchers identify rare adult immune disease in Asia…
Did Yersinia pestis really cause Black Plague? Part 5: Nail in the coffin
Posted by Tara C. Smith on August 24, 2012 Despite its reputation as a scourge of antiquity, Yersinia pestis–the bacterium that causes bubonic plague–still causes thousands of human illnesses every year. In modern times, most of these occur in Africa, and to a lesser extent in Asia, though we have a handful of cases each year in the U.S as well. When Y. pestis…
Despicable: A parents’ guide to blaming the death of their child on vaccines
Posted by Orac on August 24, 2012 When I first started this blog, I had little idea of what I was in for. I thought I had some idea from having read a bunch of blogs and found role models whose blogging style I tried to emulate back in those early days, long before I developed the persona and writing style that…
Is a trial of stem cell therapy in autism scientifically and ethically justified?
Posted by Orac on August 23, 2012 Houston, we have a problem. Oh, wait. I’m not talking about Stanislaw Burzynski this time. But we do still have a problem, and it’s a problem that resembles the Burzynski problem I recently discussed. Specifically, it’s a problem of unethical clinical trials somehow winning approval from institutional review boards (IRBs). In academia, IRBs are basically…
Should they allow pigs at the State Fair, and what if they do?
Posted by Greg Laden on August 22, 2012 The State Fair is about to start up here in Minnesota, and the top epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota has very clearly stated that the swine should be excluded this year in order to avoid swine to human transmission of a flu virus that has been showing up in increasing numbers lately. I’ve blogged…
The Thinking Atheist: A world full of woo
Posted by ERV on August 22, 2012 The Thinking Atheist did a show last night on ‘A world full of woo‘– I stopped by for a few minutes to talk about anti-vaxers, but there is a lot more to the episode, including an interview with Dr. Harriet Hall! TA is super– Last year he recorded and produced all of the videos for…
“Spillover” by David Quammen
Posted by Tara C. Smith on August 22, 2012 Regular readers don’t need to be told that I’m a bit obsessed with zoonotic disease. It’s what I study, and it’s a big part of what I teach. I run a Center devoted to the investigation of emerging diseases, and the vast majority of all emerging diseases are zoonotic. I have an ongoing series of…
Quackademic medicine versus cancer quackery: The central dogma of alternative medicine is questioned by an advocate of “integrative medicine”
Posted by Orac on August 22, 2012 Since I seem to be on a roll the last few days discussing cancer quackery, I thought I’d just go with it at least one more day. Frequently, when I get on these rolls laying down the Insolence, both Respectful and not-so-Respectful, over antivaccine quackery I start whining about how I need to change topics,…
Yet another dubious breast cancer cure testimonial
Posted by Orac on August 21, 2012 [NOTE: Please be sure to read the addendum!] I hate cancer quackery. I know, I know, regular readers probably figured that out by now, and even new readers rarely take more than a couple of weeks to figure it out. That’s because cancer quackery is a frequent topic on this blog. One of the most…
