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It appears that for the first time human granulocytic anaplasmosis, an emerging tick-borne infectious disease found in the US and Europe, has been identified in China and apparently was transmitted from person to person, according to a new study.

Asthma may be overdiagnosed in countries like Canada, suggests a longitudinal study of 540 obese and non-obese adults that found approximately one third of Canadians with physician-diagnosed asthma do not have asthma when objectively tested.

Bread, pasta, and other foods made from whole grains -- known to help protect against heart disease, cancer and diabetes -- may get even healthier in the future.

A review of previously published studies suggests that rates of adverse outcomes for mothers or pregnant women and newborn babies, such as gestational diabetes and low birth weight, may be lower after bariatric surgery compared with pregnant women who are obese, according to a new study.

Rises in the ambient temperature modify the behavior of dog ticks and increase their affinity for humans. There is thus a risk that episodes of global warming may be associated with epidemics of tick-borne diseases.

Invading pathogens provoke a series of molecular heroics that, when successful, muster an army of antibodies to neutralize the threat. Like with any close-quarter combat, however, an aggressive immune response runs the risk of friendly fire accidents. For the last decade, immunologists have intensively studied mechanisms evolved by the immune system to avoid these accidents by shutting off the immune response once the invaders have been eliminated.

Scientists are tracking how the dissemination of the parasite Trichinella spiralis throughout Europe, North Africa and the Americas was facilitated by human travel and the transportation of animals.

In the future, tablet-shaped robots could perform some surgical operations without injuring the body. A new publication shows how such surgical bio-microrobots might function.

Universal and annual voluntary testing followed by immediate antiretroviral therapy treatment (irrespective of clinical stage or CD4 count) can reduce new HIV cases by 95% within 10 years, according to new findings based on a mathematical model developed by a group of HIV specialists in WHO.

A new study shows that the current tuberculosis vaccine induces protective immunity against nine strains of the bacteria in mice indicating that strain-specific resistance may be uncommon.