The short answer is, probably not very. The fact of the matter is, in order to contract ebola, you have to have been in close contact with an infected individual or the corpse of an individual killed by the disease. Although the disease is highly lethal, with mortality rates close to 90% for the most virulent strains, it is actually fairly difficult to acquire, and the virus does not spread well.
Read MoreDo Grizzly Bears Contain the Cure for Diabetes?
As it turns out, bears are capable of uniquely regulating a protein called PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog), which has a role in shutting off insulin signaling (among other things). So all we have to do is turn off PTEN in people and their type 2 diabetes will go away, right? Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple.
Read More
A village worker takes a blood sample from a patient. Source: Gates Foundation
Losing the Front Line
Drug-resistant malaria is beating our best antimalarial drug, and this isn’t the first time. Just last week a report in the New England Journal of Medicine detailed the extent to which resistance to the current first-line antimalarial drug artemisinin has spread from its epicenter, the Thai-Cambodia border. This study conducted by researchers from different institutions, collectively known as the Tracking Resistance to Artemisinin Collaboration (TRAC), monitored artemisinin resistance from 2011 to 2013 across 10 countries — primarily in Southeast Asia, but also in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Read More
