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Infectious Disease History
Happy 50th anniversary of no mumps!
This year we celebrate 50 years of mumps vaccination in America, helping to make chipmunk cheeks and swollen testicles a thing of our...
Sneaky 1960s rabies prevention inventions
Antibodies are always looking out for us, and this week we're taking a closer look at them. Antibody-based tests, vaccines, and drugs have...
Healthy hogs for a healthy nation
Antibodies are always looking out for us, and this week we're taking a closer look at them. This is the fourth post in our Antibodies Week...
Plague hits Mouse Town, USA!
Antibodies are always looking out for us, and this week we're taking a closer look at them. Antibody-based tests, vaccines, and drugs have...
An-tee-bodies: T-shirts in celebration of the antibody
Antibodies are always looking out for us, and this week we're taking a closer look at them. Antibody-based tests, vaccines, and drugs have...
Antibodies are a girl's best friend
Antibodies are always looking out for us, and this week we're taking a closer look at them. Antibody-based tests, vaccines, and drugs have...
When real patriots got Tetanus
"The coming stupendous holocaust, caused by the sky-rocket, the giant fire cracker and the toy pistol, that leaves an annual trail of...
Pork, politics, and public health
I dare not eat / A dead pig's meat / Though not of creed of Moses /For, oh, I fear / From what I hear, / That horrid trichinosis—...
Kids pitched in to defeat disease and advance medical research
Giving blood, getting a flu shot, raising money for a cure—plenty of Americans participate every day to help secure the health...
Standing up against disease together—or not
Eliminating or lowering rates of communicable disease often requires that we participate together in the battle against infectious disease...
Combating infectious disease and slaying the rubella dragon, 1969-1972
Metaphors of war and combat are almost impossible to avoid when describing humankind's struggle to control infectious disease. The war may...
Next on your radio dial, 15 minutes of healthy talk
At the first sign of symptoms, many people turn to the Internet for health advice. Early listeners to radio could turn their dials and...
Anti-vaccination in America
In 1926 seven-year-old Belema Siegfried was turned away from school. The reason? Her parents had refused to submit paperwork proving that...
12 kids who helped a doubting public accept the smallpox vaccine
Each year in August, National Immunization Awareness Month provides an opportunity to highlight the value of immunization across the...
The peace gun
At the height of the Cold War, Soviet and American scientists and physicians united to call for a new and very different war—one on...
The AIDS Quilt: A Memorial
Curator Dr. Katherine Ott invited students in Dr. Samuel J. Redman's Museum/Historic Site Interpretation Seminar to explore the museum's...
Outbreak! On the front lines of a measles epidemic
In 1904 C. A. Lindsley, the secretary of the Connecticut State Board of Health, complained that "measles is still prevailing in an epidemic...
Surviving rabies 100 years ago
Diane Wendt, associate curator in the Division of Medicine and Science, shares objects from the museum's collection that offers a glimpse...
How horses helped cure diphtheria
As part of her work on a partnership between this museum and the National Library of Medicine, Project Assistant Mallory Warner researched...
The FLU is back: Mind your H’s and N’s
With flu season in the headlines, curator Diane Wendt in the Division of Medicine and Science looks back at flu prevention dating to 1918....
Helping People with AIDS organization records donated to the Archives Center
Editor's note: This post was originally posted on the Smithsonian Collections Blog. December 1st is World AIDS Day. Helping...
International AIDS Conference
NMAH is participating in “Quilt in the Capital” with 24 panels on display in the Hall of Musical Instruments, hosting the AIDS 2012 Film...
The anatomy of a discovery: Q&A with HIV researcher Dr. Jay Levy
It’s been 30 years since the first cases of HIV and AIDS were reported and, since then, the disease has created a...
Speaking out about HIV/AIDS, one button at a time
Editor's Note: This is the fifth post in a series exploring the 30th anniversary of HIV and AIDS. Beginning last June 3, the National...
Collecting an Epidemic: The AIDS Memorial Quilt
Editor’s Note: This is the fourth post in a series exploring the 30th anniversary of HIV and AIDS. Beginning on June 3, the National Museum...
Interview: "Teaching AIDS" in the early 1980s
Editor’s Note: This is the second post in a series exploring the 30th anniversary of HIV and AIDS. Beginning on June 3, the National Museum...
30 years of HIV and AIDS in America
This summer will mark 30 years since the first official reports of HIV and AIDS. It was not called that back then, of course...
A brief history of AZT
AIDS - The Growing Threat, What’s Being Done. Time Magazine, Aug. 12, 1985.Editor’s note: The museum is planning a special display of...
This will NOT protect you from swine flu
I did not get my flu shot last fall. The threat of, or at least the media attention about, “avian flu” had abated, and I missed the...
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