Learn the secrets of the human vessel — medical discoveries, human biology and the science behind how our bodies function.
It reframed pandemic risk as a major global security threat and was later seen as an early warning in light of COVID-19.
Read more →
A 2019 IVF embryo mix-up at CHA Fertility in Los Angeles led to a woman giving birth to babies who were later found not to be genetically related to her and her husband.
Read more →
Shoe-fitting fluoroscopes were X-ray machines once used in shoe stores to let customers see how shoes fit, but they were later removed because the radiation exposure was unnecessary.
Read more →
PIP breast implants became a major patient safety scandal after investigators found the company had used unauthorized industrial-grade silicone gel in some implants, prompting recalls, legal action, and fraud convictions.
Read more →
Pertactin-deficient Bordetella pertussis strains became more common after acellular pertussis vaccines were introduced, suggesting vaccine-driven pathogen adaptation while vaccines continued to reduce severe illness.
Read more →
The 2016 switch from trivalent to bivalent oral polio vaccine reduced routine type-2 vaccine exposure but also left some populations with weaker type-2 immunity, allowing circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 outbreaks to occur where coverage was low.
Read more →
Some early polio vaccine lots were contaminated with simian virus 40 (SV40) from monkey kidney cells, prompting stronger screening and viral safety standards for biological products.
Read more →
The article explains how several known laboratory and immunoassay interferences can produce falsely alarming emergency test results that mimic serious acute illness.
Read more →
Later PCR testing of retained Green Cross fibrinogen vials in Japan found hepatitis C viral RNA, confirming that some clinical stock had been contaminated.
Read more →It mattered because Salk framed the newly successful polio vaccine as a public good rather than private property, giving a widely shared scientific breakthrough a powerful civic meaning.
Read more →The line mattered because it framed unequal medical outcomes as moral choices, not just technical failures, and became a defining statement of Farmer’s critique of global health inequality.
Read more →
The article explains that phantom sensations are not limited to missing limbs and can also occur after the loss or removal of other body parts, due to ongoing signals from the brain and nervous system.
Read more →
Medica issued a field safety notice and the FDA posted a Class II recall for certain capillary blood gas tubes after they were found to produce potassium results with up to a 20% positive bias.
Read more →
Barry Marshall’s 1984 self-experiment helped demonstrate that Helicobacter pylori can cause gastritis and plays a major role in many ulcers, changing treatment toward antibiotic eradication.
Read more →It mattered because it restated that a doctor’s first duty is the patient’s health, responding to wartime abuses and helping rebuild trust in medical ethics.
Read more →It formally characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic at a moment when the virus had already spread widely, giving the world a clear official term for an unfolding global emergency.
Read more →
A 1959 blood plasma sample from Kinshasa yielded the earliest known genetic sequence of HIV-1, helping scientists reconstruct the virus’s early spread in humans.
Read more →
A 1971 medical report linked prenatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES) with a rare clear-cell cancer of the vagina and cervix in young women, leading to major changes in pregnancy drug safety and labeling.
Read more →This article highlights surgical and implantable medical devices that were recalled, restricted, or largely abandoned after serious safety problems changed clinical practice and regulatory oversight.
Read more →
The 2012 NECC contaminated steroid injection outbreak caused fungal meningitis and deaths, and it led Congress to create stronger FDA oversight for large-scale compounding pharmacies in 2013.
Read more →
The CAST trial showed that antiarrhythmic drugs encainide and flecainide suppressed PVCs after myocardial infarction but increased mortality, proving that an improved surrogate marker does not necessarily mean better patient outcomes.
Read more →It set a lasting ethical priority for medical research by stating that protecting the individual participant comes before scientific or societal goals.
Read more →
In 2010, the mummified remains of two infants were found in an old steamer trunk in Los Angeles and later identified through DNA as the children of the trunk’s owner.
Read more →
This article explains how a small number of transfusion cases become exceptionally difficult because of rare blood types, complex antibodies, or pregnancy-related risks that require specialized matching and rare-donor coordination.
Read more →
The article explains how duodenoscopes used in ERCP were linked to CRE outbreaks because some designs were difficult to fully clean and disinfect.
Read more →
Early CJD cases linked to reused neurosurgical instruments showed that standard sterilization could fail against prions, leading to stricter decontamination and instrument-handling protocols.
Read more →Tap a topic to search across all CurioWire stories.
A neonatal intensive care unit Candida bloodstream outbreak was linked to contaminated retrograde syringe fluid used during parenteral nutrition, rather than to the nutrition solution itself.
Read more →It formally defined cigarette smoking as a major public-health hazard and helped justify federal anti-smoking action.
Read more →
Pemberton's sign is a bedside maneuver in which raising both arms causes facial congestion and neck vein distension, suggesting substernal goiter and possible thoracic inlet compression.
Read more →
A 1999 Legionnaires’ disease outbreak was traced to whirlpool spa displays at a flower show, where contaminated aerosolized water likely infected visitors.
Read more →