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In 1994, during an unusually cold January in Maryland, birdwatchers began noticing red finches with swollen, crusty eyes. They sat alone on the bird feeders, with ruffled feathers while healthy birds flitted around them. Within weeks, sick finches were reported far beyond the Washington area where they were first observed. By the end of the year, they had been spotted all over the eastern seaboard.

Scientists at the University of Georgia and North Carolina State found the finches were infected with a new strain of Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG), a bacterium that is a common cause of upper respiratory infections in chickens. It has never before been seen in songbirds.
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Pamela MacArthur was a healthy artist whose body suddenly started to twitch. She had nightmares and her face erupted in boils so painful that it hurt to roll over in bed. Doctors suggested drugs for acne and psychological disorders, but MacArthur?s dentist had the solution. He removed nine metal fillings and replaced them with plastic substitutes, and soon she was fine.

MacArthur is one of a growing number of people who believe their medical problems are caused by the mercury in their dental fillings. Even though metal fillings are called ?silver,? they are actually an amalgam of half mercury and the other half a mixture of silver, copper, tin and zinc.
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Dengue fever is one of two mosquito-borne illnesses that have Florida health officials increasingly worried about a major outbreak. The other one is West Nile virus, which first showed up in the United States in 1999 and quickly moved south. Last year, 53 of Florida?s 67 counties were under medical alert for the virus.

Now officials worry that dengue fever will also spread to Florida. In recent years, there have only been about four cases a year, all imported by people who had were bitten in other countries.
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Three former co-workers of Michael J. Fox all have Parkinson’s disease, causing speculation that the disease may have an environmental cause. Nobody knows what causes Parkinson’s disease. Scientists look for disease clusters, hoping this will help them turn up clues that can help with the search for a cure.

Fox and the three other people with Parkinson’s disease were among 125 people who in the late 1970s worked on a Canadian television show called Leo & Me. Four cases among 125 people — especially young people — is highly suspicious. Each year Parkinson’s strikes only about 1 in 10,000 people, nearly always much older people than the sitcom cast and crew.
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