One Of The Biggest Myths About The AIDS Epidemic Is That It’s Over

The New York Times: ‘If We Do This Right’ Maybe H.I.V. Will Be Forgotten
If the 50 years since Stonewall has ultimately been about social and legal progress for L.G.B.T.Q. people, it has also been about one of the most devastating and, at first, mysterious medical events of modern times: The AIDS epidemic. While history now tells us that H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, probably made its move to humans from chimpanzees in central Africa in the early 1900s, its arrival in the United States in the 1980s brought to the public consciousness a disease that has so far killed more than 35 million people worldwide. (Dubin, 6/12)

The New York Times: The Latest Reason To Breast-Feed: Milk Is Alive
In the earliest days after birth, millions of bacteria make their home in a baby’s body — in the skin, mouth and especially the gut. These immigrants come from the birth canal and the mother’s feces (during a vaginal birth), the mother’s skin and mouth as she holds and nuzzles the baby and perhaps even from the placenta, although that source is still debated. The colonizing microbiome can have a far-reaching impact on the baby’s health. (Mandavilli, 6/12)

CNN: Facebook's Blood Donation Tool Makes US Debut
Facebook is no longer just a place to connect with former high school buddies; the social media giant now wants to make it easier for you to connect with blood banks, too. On Wednesday, Facebook launched a blood donation feature in the United States to help users find places to donate blood in their area and be notified when a nearby blood donation center may be in need. The feature allows users to sign up to be blood donors in the "about" section of their profiles and then receive notifications from blood donation centers. (Howard, 6/12)

The Associated Press: New Gene Tests For Germs Quickly Reveal Source Of Infections
Brian Jetter was on life support, a healthy 40-year-old suddenly battling pneumonia and sepsis, and a slew of tests had failed to find the cause. Mystery illnesses like this kill thousands of people each year when germs can't be identified fast enough to reveal the right treatment. Now genetic tests are helping to solve these cases. (6/12)

The New York Times: How To Protect Your DNA Data Before And After Taking An At-Home Test
Consumer DNA testing kits like those from 23andMe, Ancestry.com and MyHeritage promise a road map to your genealogy and, in some cases, information about what diseases you’re most susceptible to. They also ask for a lot of trust with your DNA information — trust that, in some ways, may not be earned. Here’s how to protect and delete your data if you use any of these services. (Ravenscraft, 6/12)

The Associated Press: O.J. Simpson Case Helped Bring Spousal Abuse Out Of Shadows
In a letter that surfaced after her 1994 murder, Nicole Brown Simpson detailed the fear and violence that framed her marriage to O.J. Simpson, the charismatic football star who became a TV pitchman. Simpson gave her "disgusted" looks with each pound she gained in her first pregnancy in 1988 and "beat the holy hell" out of her a year later, when the couple told an X-ray lab she fell off a bike, she wrote. (6/12)

CNN: Eating More Red Meat Linked With Higher Mortality Risk
Mounting evidence continues to suggest that eating too much red meat -- such as bacon and hot dogs -- is linked with health problems. A new study finds that changes in your red-meat-eating habits can be tied to your risk of early death. An increase in red meat consumption of at least half a serving per day was linked with a 10% higher risk of early death in the study, published in the medical journal BMJ on Wednesday. Replacing red meat with other protein sources may help you live longer, the study found. (Howard, 6/12)

Kaiser Health News: Why So Many Older Americans Rate Their Health As Good Or Even Excellent
A common myth about aging is that older adults are burdened by illness and feel lousy much of the time. In fact, the opposite is usually true. Most seniors report feeling distinctly positive about their health. Consider data from the 2017 National Health Interview Survey (the most recent available), administered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When asked to rate their overall health, 82% of adults ages 65 to 74 described it as excellent (18%), very good (32%) or good (32%) — on the positive side of the ledger. By contrast, 18% of this age group had a negative perspective, describing their health as fair (14%) or poor (4%). (Graham, 6/13)

The New York Times: A Fractured Ankle Turned Me Into My Father
I have become my father. I don’t mean I’m short-tempered, overly particular about petty things or obsessed with finding cheap gasoline, although these are all traits he passed on to me. I mean I can’t walk. Unlike my father, my condition is temporary — I fractured my ankle on an ill-advised descent down an icy hill on cross-country skis, landing me with a space-age boot and crutches. (Palm, 6/13)

NPR: More Wildfires Bring Focus On How All That Smoke May Harm Firefighters
When Timothy Ingalsbee thinks back on his days in the 1980s and '90s fighting wildfires in the Pacific Northwest, he remembers the adventure of jumping out of a helicopter into the wilderness, and the camaraderie of being on a fire crew. "We just slept in a heap," he says, "on the ground under the stars, or smoke-filled skies." But Ingalsbee, who went on to found the Eugene, Ore.-based Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, doesn't like to remember all that smoke. (Burns, 6/12)

The New York Times: Bats, Not Dogs, Are The Most Common Source Of Rabies
Bats are the main cause of human rabies in the United States and have been for several years, responsible for infecting seven of every 10 people who develop the disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Wednesday. Even though the actual number of rabies cases is very small, the C.D.C. made its announcement to raise awareness that bats carry rabies, said Dr. Emily Pieracci, a veterinarian with the agency. (Gorman, 6/12)