Disease

Can you catch herpes from double dippers? Unlikely, but it's hard to tell because what passes for science in reporting this story clearly flunks science. 
Breast cancer is more difficu lt to detect in women whose breasts are dense. It is unclear whether there is also underlying behavioral differences in their cancers. Should we treat them as a separate population?
A group at Mount Sinai Medical School has made a rather startling discovery. People who died from Alzheimer's Disease had brains that contained more of two herpes viruses than controls. Could we have been looking in the wrong direction for therapies for this disease? This is a potentially huge discovery. 
When a gene is copied into a strand of RNA, the DNA in and around the gene must be loosened from its packaged state. Then, Spt6 helps DNA become re-wound when the copying process is completed. It also facilitates RNA degradation. This may lead to ways to understand disease.
Seven years ago, the global public health community declared the eradication of rinderpest, a severe viral disease of cattle. But today, Bulgaria says it's dealing with an outbreak of ovine rinderpest. They are two different, but closely related, viruses. Here's some insight into what we know.
A new, large-scale breast cancer study of nearly 760,000 premenopausal women produced a surprising result: as body fat increased, their cancer risk decreased. That's the opposite of the risk for women who have reached menopause. But don't take this to mean it's OK to put on the pounds. 
Mosquitoes transmit a wide variety of nasty microbes, from viruses like dengue, yellow fever and Zika, to parasites like malaria. The sheer number and diversity of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes makes vaccine development a challenge. But what if a vaccine could, instead, target the mosquito?
The stories told by patients with Alzheimer's Disease show us how entwined memory is with our sociability. 
Ebola is the most famous of the hemorrhagic fever viruses, but it’s not the only one. Another killer has caused outbreaks throughout the Middle East and Asia, infecting more than 1,000 people every year since 2002.
A new paper provides solid evidence that the cause of the apparent uptick in celiac disease cases is not due to wheat breeding. So, the search for the real cause continues.
Unless they're eradicated smallpox-style, infectious diseases never disappear. Like an unlucky penny, they can show up at any time. Three stories from around the U.S. serve to underscore a crucial lesson.
A large study focusing on breast cancer treatment demonstrates that for estrogen responsive, HER2-negative cancers, the majority of women do not require chemotherapy.