Medicine, Health, and Nursing

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Zika virus as a global health emergency on 1 Feb. Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the WHO, stated that the Zika virus was given the designation of emergency in order to ensure that people are alerted to the problem, and governments and non-profit organizations mobilize funds to take prompt action to stop the outbreak. Many research teams across the world are attempting to create a vaccine that would prevent and cure person who has come in contact with the virus. Read more about this here.

A wide range of human diseases is caused by gene mutations, which result in misfolded protein molecules. Now researchers have demonstrated in mice what could be a revolutionary technique to correct this and cure a disease. To know more, read on. 

It is believed that appendix is a vestigial organ and its removal is one of the most commonly performed surgeries. However, two research groups headed by Professor Gabrielle Belz of Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, and Professor Eric Vivier at the Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, France, believe that a healthy appendix might have the potential of saving a person’s life. Read more about their research here.

Biologists at the University at Buffalo have found that being severely overweight alters the way we taste food. To know more, read on. 

Chemicals known as emulsifiers are commonly added in most processed foods to enhance the foods' texture. Emulsifiers are considered safe but read on to find out what an immunologist at Georgia State University in Atlanta found after he and his colleagues fed common emulsifiers to healthy mice.    

Douglas E. Brash, clinical professor of therapeutic radiology and dermatology at Yale School of Medical, and his colleagues discovered that skin damage from ultraviolet radiation (UV) continues hours after sun exposure. Read on to find out more about this study. 

Antibiotic resistance is a global concern. The Centers for Diseases Control perceive improved use of antibiotics through identifying the best combination of drugs as one of the ways of controlling the problem. However, since the number of antibiotics is extremely large, the application of this method is difficult. To resolve this problem, the researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have developed a mathematical approach inspired by Darwinian evolution to analyze antibiotic resistance. Read more about their research here.

Chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition characterized by long-term disabling tiredness, has remained an unclassified disease for long. The existence and definition of this disease have been debated and doubted even my medical professionals. Now the panel of the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) has produced an influential report on how the disease should be diagnosed. Read on to find out more. 

A group of researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology studied the reasons behind the loss of bone mineral density experienced by astronauts in a spaceflight. They reared Medaka fish aboard the International Space Station for 56 days and examined their jawbones and teeth to observe any effects of microgravity. Read more about their research here.

It is known that Vitamin D is essential for bone health and muscle function. However, there is a widespread belief that vitamin D levels are related to depression although it is not backed by any study. To investigate this claim, researchers at the Oregon State University led by David Kerr studied 185 healthy women in the age group of 18 and 25. Read more about their research here.