Medicine & TechnologyAlthough Ebola has finally been contained in Liberia, there is much to learn from this latest outbreak. Health officials are taking heed of the valuable lessons gained from the successes, and more importantly, the failures, of this most recent epidemic.
A year later and over 4,000 dead, Liberia can finally breathe a sigh of relief as The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the country Ebola free.
"The outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Liberia is over," according to a WHO statement given at the emergency command center in Monrovia, as reported by The New York Times.
But this doesn't mean Africa is in the clear. In fact, if the countries surrounding Liberia are included, the death toll from the past year's outbreak soars to more than 11,000, making the current outbreak five times deadlier that all previous outbreaks combined.
Ten months ago the perfect storm of weak public health policy, poverty, and the Ebola virus transformed Liberia into a bloody battleground. The epicenter of the disaster was the Logan Town clinic, where workers without gloves or running water tried by candlelight to try to save their first patient in the crisis. Now, less than a year later, the Logan Town Clinic and its employees—like the rest of Liberia—is equipped to handle Ebola and any similar disease epidemic.
If you're a smoker in China, you'll be paying about a penny more per puff, now that the Chinese government has decided to hike taxes on cigarettes. In an effort to curb the public's avid consumption, while at the same time raise tax revenue, the government announced Friday they will be increasing taxes on cigarettes from 5% to 11%, beginning May 10.
San Francisco has become the first city in the nation to ban chewing tobacco from its playing fields, including the home to the San Francisco Giants, AT&T Park.
In a new study by the Pew Research Center and the Census Bureau, researchers have discovered that fewer women in the United States are childless in their 40s. The most significant drop was noticed for women who had master's degrees or doctorates. In 1994, 30 percent of the women with higher education were childless, but last year that number had dropped to 22 percent.
The first human trials of an investigational vaccine against West Nile virus have begun. Researchers will evaluate the efficacy of the vaccine in the clinical trials which are taking place at Duke University. Currently there is no approved vaccine for use in humans.
Children who survive an outbreak of measles may have to live with a weakened immune system for up to three years, leaving them more susceptible to other types of potentially deadly diseases, scientists have warned
The rates of hepatitis C infections have more than tripled in four Appalachian states from 2006 to 2012, fueled by prescription drug abuse among those who inject drugs, especially in rural areas, United States health officials said.
If the advocates for immunization didn't have a strong enough case already, they can now add another arrow to their quiver. It turns out children who contract measles not only suffer a potential life threatening illness, but their immune system takes a whack for up to three years afterwards.
Your mother was right: eating your green veggies, not to mention your apple a day, might keep the oncologist away. Researchers have found that chewing up cruciferous vegetables transforms a precursor compound and enzyme they contain into a powerful cancer-preventing compound called phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC).
New research has found that Milennials today have fewer sex partners than those who were part of both the Baby Boomers and Generation X during the 1950's and 1960's.
In breaking news out of Harvard, researchers announce today they may have identified a crucial link in the deadly chain of malaria infection – the red blood cell’s entry portal for the lethal parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Their discovery may pave the way for a much anticipated therapy – a vaccine.
A new study has found that the healthier we eat over the years, the better shape our brains will be in as we age. Researchers from McMaster University found that people from all over the world who kept a Mediterranean style diet in middle age had a reduced risk of cognitive decline as they got older.