The Mania Over Gay Flesh-Eating Super-Staph  Jan 15 2008

People are going whole-hog bananas today over a new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, in which gay men arriving at hospitals and clinics in San Francisco and Boston were showing high incidences of truly nasty drug-resistant staph infections. Let's panic! After all, Matt Drudge is teasing the story with an invented quote: "STRAIN OF SUPERBUG 'MAY BE NEW HIV'..." But that language doesn't actually appear anywhere, much less in the Reuters summary to which he links; it does not even appear in this story that uses that phrase as a headline. Mmm, fake horror! The study began sampling patients four years ago. If this was the new super-plague, we'd all be neck-deep in boils already.

Design Observer has a suggested alert system  Aug 14 2006

Design Observer has a suggested alert system for the avian flu.

People, especially Americans, are so well-fed and  Aug 03 2006

People, especially Americans, are so well-fed and taken care of prenatally and from 0-2 years of age that the population is growing taller, getting heavier, living longer, and is much less likely to suffer from chronic diseases.

Underground culture watch: "bug chasers" are men  Jun 21 2006

Underground culture watch: "bug chasers" are men who are actively looking to get infected with AIDS, or "initiated into the brotherhood".

Update: When the RS article came out three years ago, it was taken apart by Andrew Sullivan in Salon and by Dan Savage. (thx jonathan, steven, scott, and tycho)

BIRD FLU DANCE WATCH ALERT! This video  Jun 07 2006

BIRD FLU DANCE WATCH ALERT! This video shows someone doing the "bird flu jamaican dance". Wait, I thought this dance was invented in the Ivory Coast? Is this a new strain of the bird flu dance infecting the Caribbean? The Jamaican dance seems different from the Ivory Coast version. More as I have it on this breaking story.

Update: I'm not so sure the first video I pointed to is the Ivory Coast version of the dance...both videos feature the same song.

Even though avian flu is under control  May 22 2006

Even though avian flu is under control in some areas of Southeast Asia, Indonesia "has witnessed more bird flu deaths than any other country in 2006".

Through vaccination and vigilance, the avian flu  May 15 2006

Through vaccination and vigilance, the avian flu is under control in the Southeast Asian countries that were hardest hit with the disease. See also this map of avian flu reports.

Blog about the small village of Nata  Apr 14 2006

Blog about the small village of Nata in Botswana that's documenting the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS there.

Scientists have found a probable carrier for  Dec 07 2005

Scientists have found a probable carrier for the ebola virus: fruit bats. According to the WHO, ebola causes death in "50-90% of all clinically ill cases".

Nice overview of what you need to  Nov 02 2005

Nice overview of what you need to be worried about regarding the bird flu. Right now for your typical non-bird-handling person? Nothing much to worry about.

Two of the biggest pessimists in the  Oct 17 2005

Two of the biggest pessimists in the business, Bill Joy and Ray Kurzweil, outline their case for not releasing the genome for the 1918 influenza virus. "The genome is essentially the design of a weapon of mass destruction. No responsible scientist would advocate publishing precise designs for an atomic bomb, and in two ways revealing the sequence for the flu virus is even more dangerous."

Flu Wiki has lots of information on  Oct 17 2005

Flu Wiki has lots of information on the avian (bird) flu.

Bats may be the source of SARS. "  Sep 30 2005

Bats may be the source of SARS. "Researchers found a virus closely related to the Sars coronavirus in bats from three regions of China".