Experimental medicine has long been a staple when it comes to treating disease.

A rudimentary smallpox inoculation centuries ago led to the first vaccine, but recently we’ve also seen many new ideas. Odor profiling is now used to find asymptomatic malaria patients and new immunotherapy techniques can expose and eliminate HIV.

But still, these experimental solutions can come from even more surprising sources. Recently, that source is muck from a partially decomposed eggplant. That treatment has already ended up playing a major role in giving life back to one young cystic fibrosis patient in 2017.

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After a century of testing and research, we found a breakthrough with the polio vaccine in 1955. Since that time, the vaccine in some form has been used around the world to greatly reduce polio risk.

The widely-used oral vaccine has been the standard polio immunization in most countries. This immunization benefits from an attenuated form of polio within the vaccine, according to the New Scientist. When the body’s immune system recognizes the virus as an intruder, the immune system is activated and fights against the ingested “illness.”

But, we’ve also learned that polio can change over time.

This live virus is smart and has the ability to mutate, which then causes polio even though the person was vaccinated. According to Medical Express, that can happen for one in 2.7 million cases. They do go on to mention the many benefits of the oral vaccine. “It is cheap to make and easy to administer: people just swallow it.”

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Measles has been at the forefront of the news, from its rapid increase to countries forming new laws and varying opinions about the vaccine. Whether you’re looking on social media or a news site, measles is in the headlines.

Don’t expect that to change soon.

A recent study conducted by Italian scientists predicts that measles will significantly rise by 2050. Published in BMC Medicine, results showed a possible 50% rise in measles cases. Study authors Filippo Trentini, Ph. D and Piero Poletti, Ph. D concluded that some high-income countries, such as South Korea and Singapore, have already met “elimination threshold.”

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In today’s world, the poliovirus circulates in just three countries; Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, plus a risk for the return of polio in Papua New Guinea.

That wasn’t always the case. In the last century alone polio plagued the United States.

But, the entire history of polio dates back long before there was any recorded history. It wasn’t until British physician, Michael Underwood, provided the first clinical description of the disease in 1789 that the world recognized polio as a detrimental problem.

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When you travel, it is always important to consider all health risks.

One risk you are taking, especially in developing countries, is contracting hepatitis A (or HAV).

Hepatitis A is a viral liver disease that can cause mild to severe illness. But, as is the case with most dangerous diseases, it’s quite easy to unknowingly spread and contract HAV.

The virus is most commonly transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food and water. Usually that comes in the form of infected fecal matter that somehow ends up in your food or drink. Any direct contact with an infectious person can also spread hepatitis A.

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