Rare but deadly Listeria bacteria is transmitted through faulty food packaging and poses threat to consumers.

Everyone — from Alicia Keys, 50 Cent and Rhianna to students at the University — are urging the people around them to register as bone marrow donors.

University efforts monitor the appearance of the H5N1 virus — more commonly known as "bird flu" — at live bird markets from around the state.  Prof. K. A. Schat studies the genome of the virus, which has the potential to mutate and infect humans.

Scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College have developed a new treatment for the Nipah and Hendra viruses — a virus commonly found in South Asia — which cause mortality in 70 to 80 percent of cases, says researchers. The viruses are potential agents of bioterror attacks, but research on them may provide the clue to improving vaccinations for measles, mumps and ebola.

At his Worm Power facility 100 miles northwest of Ithaca in Avon, N.Y. Tom Herlihy feeds 20 tons of dairy cow manure to eight million earthworms each week. About 28 days after they are fed, the worms churn out “vermicompost” – a nutrient-rich organic fertilizer.  Allison Jack grad, plant pathology and plant-microbe biology, has shown that vermicompost can suppress disease in crop plants.

It is estimated that over one-fifth of Pakistan went under water during the July 2010 floods. While the floods left only an estimated 1500 dead, they left over 21 million individuals without homes, as a result of what United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called, “slow moving tsunami”.  The destruction of essential infrastructure created a dangerous atmosphere, where survivors now face potentially endemic diseases.  UNICEF estimates that over 3.5 million children run the risk of contracting a waterborne disease as an aftermath of the flood.

Most Americans feel the prick of a pertussis vaccination when they are as young as two months old.  While the medical community largely considered pertussis – or whooping cough – to be eliminated in 1976 (with less than 1,000 cases in the United States), the disease has resurged in Michigan, South Carolina, New York and California, where the outbreak has reached the level of an epidemic with 2,774 reported cases. 

How shocked was I to receive a text from a friend telling me there was an article about Lyme disease in The Sun? Extremely, but pleasantly. How did I feel after reading this article? Not so pleasant, but also not surprised.