Years ago we learned that women can still contract HPV without sexual intercourse. The good news is that the HPV vaccine has caused a significant drop in cervical cancer cases for women.

But, this discovery showed a further danger for a sexually transmitted infection that can even increase heart problems for women.

If women can get the virus without sexual intercourse, what about men?

While a man with HPV cannot get cervical cancer, the virus still poses a great risk for men. While rare, the virus can still cause some dangerous symptoms. Worse, they can spread the disease to another person without even knowing of their own infection.
Studies in recent years show men who abstain from sexual activity can still be infected with the HPV.

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Recommended for most travelers, the typhoid vaccination has helped save countless lives and provided protection against a troubling illness. We recently learned the vaccine may even protect against many diseases besides typhoid.

But, who originally created the typhoid vaccine?

Credit for the vaccination is granted to not one man, but two: Sir Almroth Wright and Richard Pfeiffer.

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The spread of measles around the world has been relentless over the past year. Over half the states in the U.S. reported increased measles cases in 2018. Airplane passengers also seem to be an unaware source of many new measles cases.

The most recent measles emergency comes from a California hospital that recently had to tell 200 patients they were exposed to the disease due to one infected child.

Earlier this month Sacramento, California hospital UC Davis Health announced that they sent several hundred letters notifying of possible measles exposure to patients who went to the emergency department on March 17th.

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The chikungunya virus can be traced back to an outbreak in Africa, more specifically a border area. The Makonde Plateau between Mozambique and Tanzania appears to be the source of this mosquito-borne disease.

Likely originating in the Eastern and Central areas of Africa, the virus was first discovered in 1952. The word “Chikungunya” is said to have come from the Makonde language where it means “that which bends up.”

That may seem like an odd way to describe a virus, but the name comes from a symptom. When infected with chikungunya, the illness can cause severe joint pain. That pain can cause a more stooped posture from the arthritic symptoms of the disease.

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They may be deadly in some cases, but vaccines have changed the way we handle many mosquito-borne diseases. Immunizations for yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis have helped much of the world avoid those diseases.

But, we’re still unable to fight many similar illnesses.

Scientists still search for vaccines to prevent West Nile and Zika virus. Many have even resorted to giving mosquitoes diet pills to reduce those diseases. The Chikungunya virus is in six of the seven continents and Dengue fever infects more than 390 million individuals every year. And let’s not forget Malaria, which affects over 214 million people annually.

These illnesses are deadly, and millions of people can lose their lives due to the effects.

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