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Throughout its history, ebola has caused humanity to hunker down and hope for the best. But in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the battle has turned. Instead of containment, quarantine and waiting it out, science is attacking.

Despite best efforts, it's very difficult to maintain a 100% gluten-free diet, something that's imperative for the health of people with celiac disease. However, an experimental new drug, designed to be taken after an accidental gluten exposure, may help keep people with celiac disease genuinely gluten-free. 

A new study details the call burden on U.S. Poison Control Centers of both unintentional and intentional exposures to medications used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Just substitute the substance and read why it's the same story, just a different day.

In Los Angeles, scores of drivers using navigation apps looking for shortcuts around traffic jams are being unwittingly re-routed to one of the steepest streets in the country. And with reports of frightening incidents on this scary series of inclines, city officials announced they're putting new safety measures in place.

We're programmed to live and then die and some aspects of aging are caused by the combined effect of many genes that are beneficial when young. But they have adverse effects at older ages.

There's crazy, and then there is crazy. This is both. Researchers in China are exploring herbs and acupuncture to treat pain and perhaps mitigate the carnage of the opioid fentanyl crisis. Where does the fentanyl come from? China. Go figure. 

Nearly a century ago, Lord Carnavon, who attended the opening of King Tut’s Tomb, died shortly afterwards, in April 1923. At the time, the sensational media linked his death to supernatural causes activated by the curse of the mummy’s tomb. More recently, this tale was rationalized by suggesting that his death was due to ancient disease causing microbes, lurking in the tomb, rather than supernatural influences.

Healthcare has cultural roots. Chicken soup as “Jewish penicillin” exemplifies one culture’s role in signifying quality, remedy and affective connotations like comfort. Meanwhile, many choose traditional Chinese medicine over its Western counterpart, a decision that provides insight but leaves us with some questions. 

A premature infant is born with a form of severe lung injury that carries a 20% chance of survival. Her physician decides to throw a medical “Hail Mary” and try an untested adult technique to bypass the injured lungs. The infant survives, and after a few more tries, the physician realizes that the survival rate may be as high as 80% with this new treatment. Does he know enough that the treatment should become standard practice, or is a randomized clinical trial required?

Few life experiences are crueler than childhood cancer, but this blatant unfairness motivates some of the best, kindest and most heartfelt medical care. In that light, clinicians in adult oncology can learn a great deal from pediatric cancer practices.

This allergy test, a sometimes unpleasant childhood right of passage, may be a thing of the past someday. New research shows that a urine test can determine if a person has an allergy to a specific substance.

With First Lady Melania Trump's hospitalization, public misperceptions about how long someone should be admitted have run amok.

"Methylene chloride is arguably the most dangerous of all the solvents sold at Home Depot," one of ASCH's experts says. Given the assessments, we believe this happens to be an instance where EPA concern is warranted.

Partisanship is a terrible development for our culture. But it's even worse for areas such as public health, because people die when we implement bad, partisan ideas.

To underscore how important the battle for its eradication still is, misperceptions are clarified and key aspects of the inherited illness are addressed here.

If the federal government stays out of picking winners and losers in energy, the trend toward lower emissions is likely to continue.

As this issue of Priorities goes to press, our New York office is closed due to a winter storm and that makes people worry about their heating bills. Meanwhile, both New York and California residents have recently been cheering because those states are determined to get rid of their nuclear power plants. That will be very bad because those states are also opposed to both natural gas and coal.

As Christopher Wild stepped down as director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer there was hope that the status quo, activism parading as epidemiology would end. The status quo won.

Ebola has returned to Africa, specifically the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unlike 2014, we now have a vaccine.

If you're in the New York City area next week and are interested in some cool science, check out some of the offerings at the World Science Festival. Now in its 11th year, the smart WSF folks really seem to have outdone themselves this time around. Some programs have a fee, others are free, but there's truly something for all ages.
 

In the grand tradition of misidentifying problems and offering proposals that won’t work, the city council of Washington, D.C. wants to force manufacturers of flushable toilet wipes to change the label to “non-flushable.” This is wrong.

A recent study, seeking to measure the impact of volunteerism on cognitive health, concluded that older adults score somewhat higher on cognitive testing when they help others. But while that might sound encouraging, given the study's limitations it's hard to take the findings as overly meaningful, or causal.

As if our policies for treatment of pain patients aren't horrific enough? If you happen to be black or Hispanic and suffer from Sickle Cell Disease, life is far worse. Do patients with a known, easily-diagnosed disease get a break with pain relief? No, it's quite the opposite. Disgraceful. 

Do physicians act differently when their patient outcomes are reported publicly? Some studies say yes and others no. Now, a new study adds to the confusion. 

There's a dramatic flip-flop going on. The World Health Organization is now claiming that trans fats, which are found in margarine and donuts, are responsible for 500,000 deaths annually. Compare that to when partially-hydrogenated vegetable oil was saving us from butter and meat fat, which were also linked to cardiovascular disease. What changed? Not much – other than a hold on logic.