No one wants a hacking cough for days or weeks on end. But research shows that it generally takes about 18 days to get over a standard cough-based illness. Most of us grow impatient after a week or so and head to the doctor to get a prescription. The problem with that recourse, however, is [...]

When I was growing up in the 1980s and ’90s with two younger brothers, the antibiotic amoxicillin was a frequent guest in our house. Strep throat, sinus infections, sore throats, coughs; we all remember that thick, pink, bubble gum-flavored liquid perhaps a little too well. But this popular drug, like many antibiotics, is overprescribed—often given [...]

In 2009, some of the snakes at the California Academy of Sciences’ Steinhart Aquarium were acting sort of s-s-s-s-strange. Scientists suspected a sickness whose cause was mysterious. Now researchers think they’ve found an unlikely origin, as they watch the disease play out in strange and terrible fashion. “Some of the symptoms are pretty bizarre,” said [...]

PHILADELPHIA—Severe malnourishment of mothers and their children can cause lifelong growth deficiencies and health problems, warned scientists at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene annual meeting in Philadelphia on Wednesday. But a lack of nutritious food isn’t the only culprit. Stunting, severe wasting and poor growth while in utero are together responsible for [...]

The ongoing bedbug epidemic has been a pain—if not full-on pestilence—for those infested and for those in constant terror of becoming so. The biting bugs are not known to carry infectious diseases like other bloodsuckers, such as ticks or mosquitoes. But the chemicals used to beat back these tiny insects seem to be making some [...]

Some professions have to worry about absenteeism—employees not reporting to work. But in the medical field, researchers are calling attention again to the troublesome trend of "presenteeism" among health care workers, and its implications. It’s common knowledge that medical residents often work well beyond the 30-consecutive-hour limit—and sometimes put in more than 80-hour workweeks. Now, [...]