Two new vaccines can prevent the transmission of meningitis from person to person by reducing 'carriage' of the responsible bacteria in the nose and throats of the population.

Meningitis can be a devastating condition. The most common causes of meningitis are viral infections that usually get better without treatment but bacterial meningitis infections are extremely serious and may result in death or brain damage, even if treated.

Climate change has happened throughout history, there are abandoned cities in places we would consider inhospitable, but they weren't at the times. As the climate changed, it has altered habitats not just for birds and bees and everything in between, but humans as well.

1990 is not some special time in world history, despite some claims that fixing one greenhouse gas would prevent climate change. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Aarhus University in Denmark say that by looking at estimates of climate and land-use change speeds they can determine the potential combined impacts of both climate and land-use change on plants, animals and ecosystems across the country. 

Both mother and baby are at increased risk for complications of flu infection during pregnancy and prenatal care providers say they advise women to get the flu vaccine, but many pregnant women don't do it.

Robert Arao, MPH, a biostatistician at Group Health Research Institute, did a statewide survey to assess what doctors think and do about flu vaccines for pregnant women. 

The small body size associated with the African pygmy phenotype is probably a selective adaptation for rainforest hunter-gatherers, according to a new study, but since all African pygmy phenotypes do not have the same genetic underpinning it is likely a more recent adaptation than previously thought, according to a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.

 A phenotype is the outward expression of genetic makeup and while two individuals with the same phenotype may look alike, their genes may differ substantially. The pygmy phenotype exists in many parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, the Philippines and perhaps South America and is usually associated with rainforest hunter-gathers rather than people who farm.

The "Great Recession" and over 90 million Americans unemployed has impacted everything except the stock market and hole sales of wealthy elites, but 40 percent of elders reported a decrease in "financial strain" between 2006 and 2010.