By Leila Gray

Insect-transmitted viruses, like Powassan and West Nile, which can attack the brain in some cases, are becoming a growing public health concern. Medical scientists are trying to understand how brain cells try to fend off invading viruses.

Recently they have learned that, in a turnabout, a biochemical self-destruct trigger found in many other types of cells appears to guard the lives of brain cells during infection with West Nile virus. 

By Allison Dubbs

People discuss Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ISIS, but rarely the 20 million Syrian citizens affected by the nation’s ongoing conflicts. According to Dr. Zaher Sahloul, there is a huge lack of compassion for those affected by the Syrian Civil War, and people are avoiding moral responsibilities.

By Jennifer Slyker

We in the global health community are greatly encouraged by the work of Congress to increase funding to the National Institutes of Health and continue the Fogarty International Center’s mission to improve health around the world, as well as grow our next generation of researchers.

While the 2017 Fiscal Appropriations preserved the Fogarty International Center through the end of September, Congress will soon begin debating funding for 2018. And Fogarty may be on the chopping block again.

By Elaine Nsoesie

Think of the last time you had food poisoning. Did you tweet about it? Did you Google your symptoms? Or did you write an angry review on Yelp?

Every day, people use the internet to seek and share health information. This opens up exciting new ways for scientists to study the health of a population, an approach known as digital epidemiology.