Disease

Joe Schwarcz ("Dr.

Everybody carries them around these days. Those tiny little hand sanitizers certainly come in handy after a ride on the subway or a trip through the airport, and they fit conveniently into my European man-bag. (Okay fine, it's a purse.

Malaria is a notoriously tricky infectious disease. Because of a unique genetic flexibility, it is able to change surface proteins, avoiding the immune response and greatly complicating vaccine development.

If you have been procrastinating getting your flu shot - it's time to get it off of your 'to-do' list. 

Now that winter has hit the northern hemisphere, our thoughts often focus on ways to keep warm.

By now, anyone even slightly versed in health issues understands that cigarette smoking can irretrievably damage the lungs — whether via lung cancer or other disease processes, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

Anti-vaxxers give several excuses (all debunked, of course) for their stance against vaccines.

Here we are at holiday time again — and along with getting together with family and friends, we can anticipate many opportunities for holiday parties and holiday eating and drinking.

By Katherine Gammon

If you asked any American what's dangerous about cigarette smoking, you'd likely get a response such as "the smoke" or "the nicotine" or "the tar". And if you delved deeper you might get an accurate response like "the chemicals".