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Two Harvard students have been confirmed to have mumps virus. Mumps is a viral disease that spreads from an already infected person to others in a number of ways. The illness causes swelling of the parotid or salivary glands along the face, neck and jaw. Most of the Americans are vaccinated against mumps during childhood. Two doses are enough for protection. However, it is believed that vaccinated people could also contract the disease.

The general characteristics indicating onset of the illness are swelling around the neck and jaw, include fever, malaise (tiredness), muscle aches and headache, while 25% of mump infected people have no or fewer symptoms.

March is Colon Cancer Awareness Month, during which, people are made aware that early detection offers better chances in dealing with cancer. However, only less than half of people aged 50 and older get tested for colon cancer. Colorectal cancer is second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. If detected early, the problem can be prevented and survival chances are high.

According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), colon cancer has a 90% cure rate when detected early. CT Colonography (CTC) or ‘virtual colonoscopy’ is used to screen for the disease. It is a high-tech, low-dose X-rays to produce moving images of the colon. The images are analyzed by doctors to detect colorectal cancer and precancerous polyps. This is also increasing the colorectal screening rates.

A California-based team was inspiration behind devising a way that could help in uploading large amount of information in human brain, and that too in a matter of seconds. The team was first to record the electric brain signals of a trained pilot. With such a development, humans could learn any skill in a very short time span.

The researchers at HRL Laboratories believe that they have designed a simulator that could transfer information to human brain at great speed. The stimulator is in the form of a cap that stimulates certain parts of brain to emulate brain activity of pilot. Then these caps were tested by being issued to people to learn flying with a flight simulator.

In case you are 45 or above and have a sales job, then there are chances that you have elevated risk for heart disease and stroke in comparison to workers in management and professional positions. Same applies to people working in office support or service-linked jobs.

For better understanding of how cardiovascular disease risk is linked to profession, CDC researchers carried out a study by including 5,566 employed black and white men and women belonging to age group 45 years and above. The findings were presented by them this week at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology/Lifestyle 2016 meeting, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Northwestern Medicine researchers have conducted a study in which they found that aggressive cases of prostate cancer are significantly linked to low levels of vitamin D.

As per the Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit medical research and practice group, prostate cancer is among the most common forms of cancer among men. It occurs in the prostate, a tiny gland that makes seminal fluid for sperm nourishment and transportation.

Prostate cancer goes in aggressive mode once it steps outside the prostate and possesses a high Gleason score, which indicates that the cancer tissue is extremely different from usual prostate tissue and has more chances of spreading.

A latest study has suggested that scientists could have the first proof that Zika virus can lead to temporary paralysis. The study was conducted on patients who suffered the rare condition in the virus outbreak in Tahiti two years back.

Zika is presently spreading at an alarming speed throughout the Americas. Several weeks back, the World Health Organization announced that the epidemic is a global emergency on the basis of suspicions that it could be the culprit of an increase in disturbing birth defects and in a neurological illness known as Guillain-Barre syndrome that generally lasts a few weeks.