Petrie Dish

Did you know there is still one tuberculosis hospital in the United States? There is just one: The Texas Center for Infectious Disease in San Antonio. Host Bonnie Petrie takes us there.

COVID cases have been increasing for weeks nationwide, but a COVID expert says not to call it a surge just yet.

In 1989, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention commissioned its first two Biosafety Level 4 labs — better known as BSL-4. Host Bonnie Petrie recently toured one of those labs in Atlanta on a fellowship from the Association of Health Care Journalists and recorded the journey.

'We've seen women who have not gone outside the door in six months,' said Margaret Constantino, executive director of the Center for Refugee Services in San Antonio. 'How does anybody stay healthy in that kind of environment?'

Family members of a woman who changed modern medicine — without her knowledge and certainly without her permission — spoke at a gathering of scientists in San Antonio recently about ethics and equity in science and medicine.

While there are still tests, treatments like paxlovid, and vaccines in the national stockpile, those should remain easily accessible. Once the stockpile is depleted, though, all those things may become more costly to the consumer and more difficult to get.

Medical misinformation is killing people, according to the head of the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Robert Califf blames misinformation and disinformation about public health for the fact that life expectancy in the United States is between three and five years lower than it is in other high-income countries.

Some are calling it the Kim Kardashian weight loss drug. Ozempic related videos have more than 1 billion views on TikTok. The medication is taken to help control blood sugar levels in type two diabetes, and it has taken off for an off-label use — as a treatment for obesity. Now, Ozempic is being studied for yet another potential use — as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

Kids seem to be catching everything and getting sicker as the pandemic enters its third winter, leaving physicians and researchers to figure out what's going on.

Flu. RSV. COVID-19. This three car collision of respiratory viruses as winter approaches is causing some health experts to worry about what they’re calling a "tridemic."