In Chapter 8, author Debora MacKenzie recounts an unfortunate history of baselessly blaming disease outbreaks on groups perceived as outsiders.

Graphic: Cathleen Heard A week after the controversial XIII International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, a much smaller gathering in Atlanta took a broader view of the current emergence and reemergence of many infectious diseases. The International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases 2000, held July 16-19, attracted more than 2,000 attendees representing 35 nations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Society for Microbiology, the Council of State

Online tools could help to improve our patchy knowledge of the whereabouts of infectious diseases.

Scientists spent five years reconstructing what is now the oldest HIV-1 genome yet recovered.

As the AIDS pandemic enters its third decade, viral resistance is beginning to counter the success of "highly active antiretroviral treatment" (HAART), the multidrug cocktails introduced in 1996. "Viral resistance is a significant problem, particularly for patients who began therapy in the pre-protease inhibitor era and who developed resistance to multiple reverse transcriptase inhibitors," says Robert Schooley, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Cen

When European explorers and fishermen began to frequent Canada’s shores in the 16th century, they brought with them a plethora of tools and trinkets, including knives, axes, kettles, and blankets. 

Clinical trials that target human endogenous retroviruses to treat multiple sclerosis, ALS, and other ailments are underway, but many questions remain about how these sequences may disrupt our biology.

Scientists are trying to design the last malaria control agent the world will ever need.

In today's otherwise sluggish biomedical job market, career prospects for these scientists are improving in academia as well as industry Immunology research is riding the crest of a wave, with significant laboratory results proliferating, observers of the field say. "Immunology remains one area in biomedicine that has relatively good prospectives for employment, and one that is likely to continue doing somewhat better than most others," says Robert Rich, a professor of microbiology, immuno