A hundred years ago a Brazilian physician, Carlos Chagas, showed that monkeys were susceptible to a rare parasitic illness carried by a particular Latin American bug.

When Nina Temple was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2000, then aged 44, she quickly became depressed, barely venturing out of her house as she struggled to come to terms with living with the chronic condition.

The World Health Organization announced Tuesday it is still considering increasing its pandemic alert level to phase 6 because of growing worldwide cases of the H1N1 virus, or swine flu.

America's highest ranking military officer said Tuesday the nation must do more for the mental health of American soldiers, warning statistics show "there are going to be more [troop] suicides this year than last."

Your desk is a mess, and you can forget about completing your to-do list -- you don't even have one. Your mind darts from one thought to the next. And that handbag you've been madly searching for on your way out the door? Yes, it's already on your shoulder.

Blockbuster movies are less likely to portray smokers than they have in the past, according to a new study. What's more, this decline in on-screen smoking may have occurred in tandem with a drop in the number of adolescents who have lit up in real life.

The 1992 Hollywood movie "Lorenzo's Oil," depicts the true story of Lorenzo, a five-year-old boy who suffered from adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a rare and incurable disease that slowly destroys the entire nervous system.

The worst cholera outbreak in Africa in 15 years has killed more than 4,000 Zimbabweans, and the crisis threatens to worsen when the rainy season hits, the U.N. Children's Fund said Thursday.

The 4-year-old daughter of former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson died Tuesday, a day after she was injured in a treadmill accident at her home, police in Phoenix, Arizona, said.