An ancient retrovirus has been found in human DNA – and it might still be active

Apr 01, 2016 15:54 pm UTC| Insights & Views Health

Striking evidence has emerged that an ancient virus previously known only from fossil evidence has persistently infected some humans at very low levels for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. This ancient...

Changing the face of autism: here come the girls

Apr 01, 2016 09:21 am UTC| Health Science

If you ask someone to name famous people (fictional or non-fictional) who are known for having autism or being on the spectrum, Rain Man is often the top favourite, possibly followed by Sherlock Holmes (especially in his...

Four things parents can do to keep their kids’ kidneys healthy

Apr 01, 2016 05:48 am UTC| Health

There has been an increase in kidney disease in children globally. In the developed world up to 5% of patients with chronic kidney disease are children. But statistics are harder to come by in the developing world. The...

Resisting expanding disease empires: why we shouldn't label healthy people as sick

Apr 01, 2016 00:57 am UTC| Health

You might have heard the frightening news last year suggesting half of all Americans had some form of diabetes. A survey in the journal JAMA was covered extensively, including by NBC, WebMD and the Los Angeles...

Is anyone there? About consciousness and its disorders

Mar 31, 2016 08:44 am UTC| Health

Imagine you just woke up from a deep, dreamless sleep. Fuzzy at first, you suddenly become aware of your surrounding, your body, your reality. We say at this point that you are conscious. But although familiar and...

Time for better chronic disease management in primary care

Mar 31, 2016 08:35 am UTC| Health

Living with a chronic disease, such as heart disease, diabetes or asthma, is hard work. Today the federal government announced its intention to revolutionise the way chronic diseases and complex conditions are cared...

COVID Virus Crisis

Ebola and Zika epidemics are driven by pathologies of society, not just a virus

Mar 30, 2016 15:37 pm UTC| Insights & Views Health

The global health threats posed by recent viral epidemics, such as avian flu, H1N1, Ebola and Zika, have been happening too frequently to be dismissed as coincidental. Unless the global public health community invests...