Doctors are grappling with a lethal new strain of gonorrhea (your great-grandparents called it "the clap") that's immune to antibiotics and can “put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days. This is very dangerous," said Alan Christianson, who is a doctor of naturopathic medicine in Phoenix. "We need to move now before it gets out of hand.” The strain was discovered in a Japanese sex worker back in 2011, and has so far baffled scientists who are trying to treat it. If it starts to spiral out of control, doctors warn that it “might be a lot worse than AIDS” ... Discuss

Yeah, it's true. It's only been tested on mice so far, but the results are tremendously promising for an antibody Stanford researchers have been experimenting with that blocks the body from "eating" cancer cells. Researchers have injected mice with human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver and prostate tumors, and their new drug has killed the tumors every time. According to Irving Weissman of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California: "We showed that even after the tumor has taken hold, the antibody can either cure the tumor or slow its growth and prevent metastasis." The drug has an unfortunate side effect of tricking the immune system into attacking healthy cells, but the relative damage was insignificant compared to what cancer would have done to them. All told, the results are exciting enough to warrant a $20 million grant and permission to move forward into human testing ... Discuss

The increase in radiation levels following the 2011 earthquake that devastated the northeastern Japanese seaboard may be responsible for a global 28% increase in babies born with thyroid gland issues. And it's not just Japanese children either—the Pacific region as a whole is feeling the effects of the Fukushima disaster, including Hawaii, California. Alaska, Oregon and Washington states. It was already determined in mid-2011 that the global 35% increase in infant mortality could be traced back to the nuclear meltdown following the quake, but these thyroid problems are a new issue, and may lead to serious issues for future generations ... Discuss

Researchers say that a 2-year-old Mississippi girl has been “functionally” cured of HIV, meaning the presence of the virus is so small it cannot be detected in the blood and will no longer require treatment. In the revolutionary case, the girl started receiving virus-fighting drugs within the first 30 hours of life. Health officials say this is only the second recorded case of someone being cured of HIV—the virus linked to AIDS. The only other account involved a man now known as the “Berlin patient” who received a bone-marrow transplant with a rare-genetic mutation that cured both his HIV infection as well as the cancer he was also fighting … Discuss