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August 31, 2012 A team of doctors and scientists, known as disease detectives, fly around the world on a moments notice to investigate mystery illnesses or contain outbreaks. These Sherlock Holmes of medicine chatted on Twitter about what it's like to be a disease detective and how you snag the gig.

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August 30, 2012 A study examining the effectiveness of second line drugs for tuberculosis finds that extensively drug-resistant TB is spreading at an alarmingly high rate around the world. Its widespread prevalence in South Africa is forcing doctors to change the way they treat this emerging epidemic.

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August 29, 2012 So far, two Missouri farmers are the only known cases of the tick-borne virus in the world. But experts are sure they'll find more. The men recovered but suffered serious illness that required hospital care and weeks of convalescence.

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August 29, 2012 Every state except Alaska and Hawaii has reported West Nile virus in people, birds or mosquitoes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects human cases will rise through October. In Texas, the worst-hit state, deaths reached 31.

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August 29, 2012 A high proportion of deaths in children during the swine flu pandemic occurred in kids who had neurologic diseases, such as cerebral palsy and epilepsy, or developmental disorders. Those conditions can affect breathing, swallowing and coughing.

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August 24, 2012 More than 100,000 people have fled to refugee camps in South Sudan to escape fighting in Sudan and find food. Heavy rains have depleted supplies and raised mortality rates above emergency levels. The United Nations has launched emergency airdrops of food to help the refugees.

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August 23, 2012 Federal and state health investigators have identified outbreaks of skin infections linked to tattoos in four states. At least 14 people in New York were infected by ink that was apparently contaminated during manufacturing.

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August 21, 2012 Over the past two decades, circumcision rates in the U.S. have fallen to 55 percent from a peak of about 79 percent. A new analysis from Johns Hopkins researchers suggests the decline will add to health care costs.

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August 20, 2012 As a captain in the U.S. Army during World War II, Theodor Geisel created a booklet warning troops against the dangers of malaria and how to avoid contracting it.

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August 15, 2012 During a festival this week at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, scientists from around the world showcased the latest toilet technologies. Bill Gates himself awarded top-performing commodes, including a solar-powered toilet and one that dehydrates waste within 24 hours.

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August 14, 2012 A newly discovered disease that makes boa constrictors sick could help researchers figure out how some dangerous viruses in animals end up infecting people.

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August 10, 2012 The Gates Foundation has granted engineers more than $3 million to develop cheap, high-tech toilets that don't need water or electricity. To test these supercommodes, the foundation has purchased 50 pounds of soybean paste that resembles human waste.

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August 9, 2012 Most of the antibiotics that once worked against gonorrhea have stopped working. Now federal health officials say doctors should stop using one of the two remaining drugs. "The big worry is that we potentially could have untreatable gonorrhea in the United States," one expert says.

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August 3, 2012 A study from Australia finds that the current vaccine for whooping cough wanes more quickly than expected, which may be helping to fuel the epidemic that's been plaguing the West Coast of the U.S.

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August 3, 2012 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new warnings about a flu virus that infected 16 people in three states in the last few weeks. Almost all the infections occurred in kids who had close contact with pigs at agricultural fairs.

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