Measles is making a recovery, which is a bad thing. The number of measles cases in the world grew to nearly 870,000 in 2019, with 207,500 deaths. Those are the highest numbers in 23 years, up 50% from 2016.

Experts at the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the cause is not enough children being vaccinated at recommended doses. The measles vaccine requires two shots, and coverage rates need to be at least 95% for the vaccine to prevent outbreaks. Rates for the first shot have stagnated at 81% for a decade, and the second shot rate hovers at just 71%.

Packed Pill

A new study shows that a cheap combination pill containing one cholesterol and three blood pressure medications, taken along with aspirin, reduces the risk of heart attacks, strokes and heart-related deaths by one-third.

The idea of so-called "poly pills" isn't new, but this latest international trial underscores their value. In the study, the poly pill used cost just 33 cents each.

Body of Knowledge

A piece of brain tissue about the size of a grain of sand contains approximately 100,000 neurons and 1 billion synapses.

Get Me That, Stat!

More than 1 in 6 U.S. adults over the age of 20 were on a special diet for weight loss or other health reasons between 2015 and 2018, according to the CDC. Women were more likely to be on such a diet, approximately 20%, compared with 15% of men. The most common special diets were a low-calorie diet, a diet for diabetes, a low-carb diet and a low-fat diet.

Counts

1 in 5: ratio of U.S. adults who experienced chronic pain in last year

Source: CDC

Doc Talk

Hering-Breuer reflex: a reflex triggered to prevent the lungs from overinspiration. But before you think that doesn't sound so bad, this means the reflex kicks in to keep the lungs from overinflating, which definitely sounds bad.

Phobia of the Week

Deipnophobia: fear of dining or dinner conversations.

Perishable Publications

Many, if not most, published research papers have titles that defy comprehension. They use specialized jargon, complex words and opaque phrases like "nonlinear dynamics." Sometimes they don't, and yet they're still hard to figure out. Here's an actual title of an actual published research study: "Agents with faces — What can we learn from LEGO Minifigures?"

In 2013, a robot expert at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and colleagues published a paper in Research Digest describing their analysis of the faces of 3,655 minifigures produced by LEGO between 1975 and 2010.

They concluded that the little LEGO faces were becoming increasingly angry, moving from benign grins and cheery smiles to grimaces, scowls and expressions of smugness. The biggest driver was LEGO's embrace of darker themes and places populated by villains and rogues. Pirates, ghosts and aliens apparently never beam with happiness.

Best Medicine

After a full medical exam, a doctor explained his prescription to his patient.

He said: "Take the green pill with a full glass of water in the morning. Take the blue pill with a full glass of water at lunch. Take the red pill with a full glass of water just before bedtime."

"What's wrong with me?" asked the patient.

"You're not getting enough water," replied the doctor.

Observation

"If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel." — Will Kommen

Medical History

This week in 1827, the School Committee of Boston, Massachusetts, voted to require, effective in the new year, that public school students show they had been vaccinated against smallpox prior to attending class. Certificates were issued for free vaccinations. The initiative came three decades after Edward Jenner's discovery of a method to immunize against smallpox. The state of Massachusetts passed the first school vaccination law in 1855, followed by New York (1862) and Connecticut (1872).

Self-Exam

Q: How many nostrils do you have?

A: The obvious answer is two, as plain as the nose on your face. The actual answer is four: two external nostrils you can see and two additional nostrils at the back of the nasal cavity. Humans share a common ancestor with fish, which had four external nostrils — two for outgoing water and two for incoming. One set of human nostrils migrated inside the head, becoming the funnels that connect to the throat, allowing us to breathe through our noses.

Medical Myths

Back in 2003, a group of German and American scientists published a paper declaring that sperm could detect smells, and notably, the little guys seems to prefer an odor compound known as bourgeonal, a component of the lily of the valley scent. Thus arose the "nose-tion" that sperm achieve their goal by following a scent trail laid down by the egg.

Sperm do, in fact, make their long journey by tracking a series of chemical signposts that act as attractants leading to the egg, but newer research has shown that it's the female sex hormone progesterone doing the signaling, not an olfactory scent associated with lily of the valley.

In labs, bourgeonal imitates the effect of progesterone on sperm, but it only works at concentrations more than 1,000 times higher than natural progesterone levels. And everybody knows too much perfume is a turnoff.

Curtain Calls

Financier William Huskisson was run over by a locomotive at the public opening of the world's first mechanically powered passenger railway in 1830. The event also marked the first recorded railway fatality.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: jarmoluk at Pixabay