Many microscopic bugs and bacteria live on our skin and within our various nooks and crannies.

Eating fast food and consuming sugary drinks renders the most common asthma inhaler ineffective, a study warns.

Wedding guests and eight serving staff at the exclusive Northern Club in Auckland fell sick in a suspected norovirus outbreak.

An outbreak of the Ebola virus, which started in a rural region of Guinea in West Africa, has now spread to the nation's capital Conakry. It now reportedly involves 122 people, of which 78 have died.

An outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever that doctors yesterday described as unprecedented has spread to three countries in West Africa.

A swine flu outbreak has struck in Hawke's Bay. Eight patients have been infected, including three who are in intensive care and one who is in a coma.

An ebola outbreak has killed almost 60 people in Guinea, and may have spread to neighbouring Sierra Leone.

More New Zealanders are using the internet to research their medical woes - and some are using their findings to treat themselves rather than visit a doctor.

At least 20 people in California, most of them children, have been infected by a rare polio-like disease, which doctors have yet to identify conclusively.

An Auckland biotech company has suspended a human trial of an experiment Parkinson's disease treatment following the retraction of previous animal research.

When Louis Corbett's parents were told their young son was losing his sight they asked him what he'd like to do before his vision was completely gone.

The Ministry for Primary Industries says it may never know the origin of a neurological strain of equine herpes which has so far killed seven thoroughbred horses.

A neurological strain of equine herpes has struck in New Zealand for the first time - killing six thoroughbred horses and infecting six others.

Passengers on the same flight as a baby with measles are being tracked the length of the country as health authorities try to halt the march of the highly contagious disease.

A pioneering trial of transplanting pig cells into the brains of humans with Parkinson's disease has been temporarily halted at Auckland City Hospital.

Twenty people have died following a deadly outbreak of the bubonic plague, medical experts on the island of Madagascar have confirmed.

Expect to hear that baleful high hum above your bed more often this summer - a mild winter has meant mosquitoes are likely to be out in force.

The parents of a young man who died of meningococcal C are "outraged with grief" at the many deaths that could have been prevented by mass vaccination.

Kane Fannin took his two young children to the beach yesterday, a seemingly ordinary excursion in the school holidays.

Kimberley Jane Dark has made it clear that she doesn't want to be kept alive with a feeding tube.

When patients have a certain kind of brain surgery to treat epilepsy at Auckland City Hospital is sent over the road to the Auckland University for research.

As millions of Muslim pilgrims prepare to converge on holy sites in Saudi Arabia this [northern] autumn, the global health community is anxiously monitoring an outbreak of a respiratory virus known as Mers.

Britain is set to become the first country in the world to allow a controversial IVF technique that produces embryos with DNA from three people in an attempt to rid some affected families of serious genetic disorders.

Judy-Anne Osborn asks "Could a dire new infection sweep the world in a matter of weeks? Might the disease be so strange it alters the behaviour of people beyond recognition, making them predatory and fearless?"

Lance and Jennifer Gravatt will use their family's health board payment, made after the death of their son, to help their new business that aims to supply a cheaper vaccination for the disease that killed Zachary.