Foodborne Illness News

February 3, 2026

Top Headlines

Feb. 1, 2026 Researchers in Bangladesh have identified a bat-borne virus, Pteropine orthoreovirus, in patients who were initially suspected of having Nipah virus but tested negative. All had recently consumed raw date-palm sap, a known pathway for bat-related ...

A Common Parasite in the Brain Is Far More Active Than We Thought

Jan. 27, 2026 A common parasite long thought to lie dormant is actually much more active and complex. Researchers found that Toxoplasma gondii cysts contain multiple parasite subtypes, not just one sleeping form. Some are primed to reactivate and cause disease, ...

Scientists Call for Urgent Action as Dangerous Amoebas Spread Globally

Jan. 25, 2026 Scientists are warning that a little-known group of microbes called free-living amoebae may pose a growing global health threat. Found in soil and water, some species can survive extreme heat, chlorine, and even modern water systems—conditions ...

The Bottled Water Everyone Trusts May Be the Riskiest

Jan. 23, 2026 In Guatemala’s Western Highlands, researchers found that the drinking water people trust most may actually be the riskiest. Bottled water from refillable jugs—seen as the safest choice—was frequently contaminated with harmful bacteria, while ...

A Global DNA Study Reveals a Hidden Threat in Diabetic Foot Infections

Jan. 20, 2026 Scientists have uncovered new clues about why diabetic foot infections can become so severe and difficult to treat. By analyzing the DNA of E. coli bacteria taken from infected wounds around the world, researchers found an unexpected level of ...

The Real Danger of Tylenol Has Nothing to Do with Autism

Jan. 18, 2026 While social media continues to circulate claims linking acetaminophen to autism in children, medical experts say those fears distract from a far more serious and proven danger: overdose. Acetaminophen, found in Tylenol and many cold and flu ...

Scientists Sent Viruses to Space and They Evolved in Surprising Ways

Jan. 18, 2026 When scientists sent bacteria-infecting viruses to the International Space Station, the microbes did not behave the same way they do on Earth. In microgravity, infections still occurred, but both viruses and bacteria evolved differently over time. ...

A New Test Reveals Which Antibiotics Truly Kill Bacteria

Jan. 12, 2026 Some antibiotics stop bacteria from growing without actually killing them, allowing infections to return later. Scientists at the University of Basel created a new test that tracks individual bacteria to see which drugs truly eliminate them. When ...

This 15 Minute Hepatitis C Test Could Change Everything

Dec. 11, 2025 Northwestern scientists have created the fastest-ever hepatitis C diagnostic, delivering accurate results in only 15 minutes. The test uses the DASH rapid PCR system, originally developed for COVID, but adapted for whole blood samples. Independent ...

Garlic Mouthwash Shows Shockingly Strong Germ-fighting Power

Dec. 8, 2025 Garlic extract is emerging as a surprisingly powerful contender to chlorhexidine, the long-standing “gold standard” in antimicrobial mouthwashes. A systematic review of clinical studies shows that higher-concentration garlic mouthwash can rival ...

New Research Reveals the Hidden Organism Behind Lake Erie’s Toxic Blooms

Dec. 2, 2025 Dolichospermum, a type of cyanobacteria thriving in Lake Erie’s warming waters, has been identified as the surprising culprit behind the lake’s dangerous saxitoxins—some of the most potent natural neurotoxins known. Using advanced genome ...

Bird Flu’s Surprising Heat Tolerance Has Scientists Worried

Nov. 28, 2025 Researchers discovered why bird flu can survive temperatures that stop human flu in its tracks. A key gene, PB1, gives avian viruses the ability to replicate even at fever-level heat. Mice experiments confirmed that fever cripples human-origin flu ...

Latest Headlines

updated 4:01am EST

How to Keep Ozempic/Wegovy Weight Loss Without the Nausea

Nov. 18, 2025 Scientists are uncovering how GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy act on brain regions that control hunger, nausea, pleasure-based eating, and thirst. These discoveries may help create treatments ...

A Tiny Ancient Virus Reveals Secrets That Could Help Fight Superbugs

Nov. 17, 2025 Scientists mapped the Bas63 bacteriophage in unprecedented detail, uncovering how its tail machinery infects bacteria. The structure reveals rare whisker-collar features and distant evolutionary ties ...

Scientists Shocked to Find E. Coli Spreads as Fast as the Swine Flu

Nov. 4, 2025 Researchers have, for the first time, estimated how quickly E. coli bacteria can spread between people — and one strain moves as fast as swine flu. Using genomic data from the UK and Norway, ...

Ancient Viruses Hidden Inside Bacteria Could Help Defeat Modern Infections

Nov. 3, 2025 Penn State scientists uncovered an ancient bacterial defense where dormant viral DNA helps bacteria fight new viral threats. The enzyme PinQ flips bacterial genes to create protective proteins that ...

“Immortal” Flatworm Rewrites the Science of Healing

Oct. 29, 2025 Flatworms can rebuild themselves from just a small fragment, and now scientists know why. Their stem cells ignore nearby instructions and respond to long-distance signals from other tissues. This ...

Scientists Find Hidden Antibiotic 100x Stronger Against Deadly Superbugs

Oct. 29, 2025 A team of scientists discovered a hidden antibiotic 100 times stronger than existing drugs against deadly superbugs like MRSA. The molecule had been overlooked for decades in a familiar bacterium. It ...

Ancient DNA Reveals the Deadly Diseases Behind Napoleon’s Defeat

Oct. 26, 2025 Researchers have uncovered microbial evidence in the remains of Napoleon’s soldiers from the 1812 Russian retreat. Genetic analysis revealed pathogens behind paratyphoid and relapsing fever, ...

Bird Flu Hiding in Cheese? The Surprising New Discovery

Oct. 21, 2025 Researchers discovered that avian influenza (H5N1) can survive in raw milk cheese made from contaminated milk, even after the 60-day aging process required by the FDA. However, highly acidic cheeses ...

Oct. 13, 2025 Finasteride, a common hair-loss drug, has long been tied to depression and suicide, but regulators ignored the warnings. Prof. Mayer Brezis’s review exposes global data showing psychiatric harm and ...

Nanotech Transforms Vinegar Into a Lifesaving Superbug Killer

Oct. 6, 2025 Researchers have enhanced vinegar’s antibacterial properties by infusing it with cobalt-based carbon nanoparticles. This nano-boosted solution kills harmful bacteria from both inside and outside ...

Stunning Images Reveal How Antibiotics Shatter Bacterial Defenses

Sep. 29, 2025 Researchers have revealed how polymyxins, crucial last-resort antibiotics, break down bacterial armor by forcing cells to overproduce and shed it. Astonishingly, the drugs only kill bacteria when ...

Scientists Finally Explain the Real Reason Pregnant Women Get Morning Sickness

Sep. 29, 2025 Morning sickness isn’t just random misery—it’s a biological defense system shaped by evolution to protect the fetus. By linking immune responses to nausea and food aversions, UCLA researchers ...

Mushrooms Evolved Psychedelics Twice, Baffling Scientists

Sep. 24, 2025 Researchers found that magic mushrooms and fiber caps independently evolved different biochemical pathways to create psilocybin. This convergence shows nature’s ingenuity, but the reason why ...

This New Semaglutide Dose Helped Nearly Half of Patients Lose 20% Body Weight

Oct. 4, 2025 The STEP UP trials revealed that a 7.2 mg dose of semaglutide led to greater weight loss than the currently approved 2.4 mg dose. Nearly half of participants lost 20% or more of their body weight, ...

Your Morning Coffee Could Secretly Be Weakening Antibiotics

Sep. 11, 2025 Researchers have discovered that everyday substances like caffeine can influence how bacteria such as E. coli respond to antibiotics. By examining 94 common drugs and food ingredients, scientists ...

Common Painkillers Like Advil and Tylenol Supercharge Antibiotic Resistance

Aug. 26, 2025 Painkillers we often trust — ibuprofen and acetaminophen — may be quietly accelerating one of the world’s greatest health crises: antibiotic resistance. Researchers discovered that these drugs ...

Trojan Horse Bacteria Sneak Cancer-Killing Viruses Into Tumors

Aug. 17, 2025 Scientists have engineered a groundbreaking cancer treatment that uses bacteria to smuggle viruses directly into tumors, bypassing the immune system and delivering a powerful one-two punch against ...

A $2 Gold Nanotech Test That Detects Deadly Diseases in Minutes

Aug. 15, 2025 Arizona State University scientists have unveiled NasRED, a revolutionary one-drop blood test that can detect diseases like COVID-19, Ebola, HIV, and Lyme with incredible speed and precision. Using ...

New “evolution Engine” Creates Super-Proteins 100,000x Faster

Aug. 8, 2025 Researchers at Scripps have created T7-ORACLE, a powerful new tool that speeds up evolution, allowing scientists to design and improve proteins thousands of times faster than nature. Using engineered ...

This Gut Hormone Could Explain 40% of IBS-D Cases—and Lead to a Cure

July 29, 2025 A mysterious gut hormone may be behind many cases of chronic diarrhea, especially in people with undiagnosed bile acid malabsorption, a condition often mistaken for irritable bowel syndrome. ...

From Cursed Tomb Fungus to Cancer Cure: Aspergillus Flavus Yields Potent New Drug

June 23, 2025 In a remarkable twist of science, researchers have transformed a fungus long associated with death into a potential weapon against cancer. Found in tombs like that of King Tut, Aspergillus flavus was ...

Superbugs in Your Shrimp: Deadly Colistin-Resistance Genes Ride on Imported Seafood

June 22, 2025 Colistin, a last-resort antibiotic, is losing its power due to rising resistance—and the culprits might be hiding in your seafood dinner. A University of Georgia research team discovered ...

How a Common Antibiotic Fuels Bacterial Resistance

June 9, 2025 A new Rutgers Health study reveals a surprising twist in the antibiotic resistance story: instead of simply killing bacteria, drugs like ciprofloxacin can actually trigger a kind of microbial ...

Synthetic Compound Shows Promise Against Multidrug Resistance

June 2, 2025 Researchers have synthesized a new compound called infuzide that shows activity against resistant strains of ...

Insect Protein Blocks Bacterial Infection

June 2, 2025 Scientists in Australia have developed a smart, bacteria-repelling coating based on resilin the ultra-elastic protein that gives fleas their legendary jumping power. When applied to surfaces like ...

Evolution of a Single Gene Allowed the Plague to Adapt, Survive and Kill Much of Humanity Over Many Centuries

May 29, 2025 Scientists have documented the way a single gene in the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis, allowed it to survive hundreds of years by adjusting its virulence and the length of ...

Earlier Measles Vaccine Could Help Curb Global Outbreak

May 29, 2025 The global measles outbreak must trigger an urgent debate into whether a vaccine should be recommended earlier to better protect against the highly contagious disease during infancy, a new review ...

Genetic Deep Dive Dispels Fear of Hybrid Worm Threat

May 28, 2025 Parasitic worms that infect humans are not interbreeding with those that infect cattle as previously thought. This is good news for when it comes to controlling schistosomiasis, a disease caused by ...

How Cholera Bacteria Outsmart Viruses

May 22, 2025 Researchers uncover a notorious cholera strain that contains sophisticated immune systems to fend off viruses, which potentially helped it to fuel a devastating epidemic across Latin ...

Unlocking the Secrets of Bat Immunity

May 21, 2025 Bats are known as natural hosts for highly pathogenic viruses such as MERS- and SARS-related coronaviruses, as well as the Marburg and Nipah viruses. In contrast to the severe and often fatal disease ...