The World Health Organization says it may be necessary to use controversial methods like genetically modified mosquitoes to wipe out the insects that are spreading the Zika virus across the Americas. The virus has been linked to a spike in babies born with abnormally small heads, or microcephaly, in Brazil… Read More

The doctor taps Zulay Balza’s knees with a hammer and she doesn’t feel a thing. She can’t squeeze his outstretched fingers or shut her eyelids. Her face is partially paralyzed. “The weakness started in my legs and climbed upward. The face was last. After three days, I couldn’t walk,” said… Read More

The number of students sickened by a mystery illness at Ursinus College in eastern Pennsylvania has risen to over 170. College spokeswoman Esme Artz says 174 students have shown signs of a stomach infection. Overnight, two students went to the emergency room, and two others were taken to a hospital… Read More

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has declared a health emergency in four counties of the state because of the Zika virus. At least nine cases of the mosquito-borne illness have been detected in Florida. Health officials believe all of the cases are from people who contracted the disease while traveling to… Read More

Sharing bacteria in the operating room normally is a no-no but in a novel experiment, researchers are giving babies born by C-section a dose of presumably protective germs from mom’s birth canal. We share our bodies with microbes — on the skin, in the mouth, in the gut — that… Read More

The World Health Organization declared a global emergency over the explosive spread of the Zika virus, which has been linked to birth defects in the Americas, calling it an “extraordinary event” that poses a public health threat to other parts of the world. The U.N. agency took the rare step… Read More

A Detroit-area couple marketing body parts for medical training failed to disclose that heads and necks came from bodies infected with disease, according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday. Arthur Rathburn and wife Elizabeth Rathburn of Grosse Pointe Park operated International Biological Inc., which rented out body parts for medical… Read More

Britain’s fertility regulator has approved a scientist’s application to edit the human genetic code using a new technique that some fear crosses too many ethical boundaries. In a statement Monday, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said it has granted a research application to a team led by scientist Kathy… Read More