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Tales from the past

A look back at the history of medicine and health.

Displaying 1 - 12 of 55

Portrait of Dr Robert Watt by Henry Raeburn. Credit left: Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. The treatise on the history, nature, and treatment of chincough. Credit right: Wellcome Collection

Whooping cough: a history

5 Aug 2025

13 min read

Whooping cough

Boy in Emerson respirator (iron lung) in Herman Keifer Hospital, Detroit, Michigan, due to polio. Viewing photographer (Joe Clark) in machine's mirror. Ca. 1955. Credit: Otis Historical Archives National Museum of Health and Medicine

A 'new medical age': 70 years of polio vaccination

11 Apr 2025

11 min read

Polio Innovation

Grin and bear it: new research suggests the Vikings were sicker than we thought

19 Mar 2025

4 min read

Research summary

The Battle of Hattin, from a 13th-century manuscript of the Chronica Majora depicting the capture of the True Cross by Saladin. Credit: Matthew Paris - Cambridge, Corpus Christi College.

Giant-killers: 7 historic deaths and the diseases that did it

14 Feb 2025

19 min read

Typhoid Tetanus Diphtheria

How pioneering ocean voyages transmitted diseases far and wide

25 Jul 2024

5 min read

Outbreaks

The changes that came with the transition from foraging to farming paved the way for disease. Nastasic/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images

Future pandemics will have the same human causes as ancient outbreaks − lessons from anthropology can help prevent them

8 May 2024

5 min read

Cross-posts Outbreaks

At the Malava County Hospital in Kakamega, Kenya, Nurse Janet Wanyama retrieves a vial with the Mosquirix malaria vaccine from a refrigerator. Gavi/2021/White Rhino Films-Lameck Orina

The vaccine cold chain: A history

30 Apr 2024

16 min read

Vaccine development

Edward Jenner vaccinating a boy. Oil painting by E.-E. Hille Wellcome

Victorian Britain had its own anti-vaxxers – and they helped bring down a government

4 Jan 2024

5 min read

Cross-posts

Credit: By Otis Historical Archives, National Museum of Health and Medicine - Emergency hospital during influenza epidemic (NCP 1603), National Museum of Health and Medicine.

No, 1918’s pandemic flu didn’t prey on the vigorous young

16 Oct 2023

5 min read

Influenza

A meningococcal vaccination session in Burkina Faso in 2017. Credit: GAVI/2017/Juliette Bastin

How Africa defeated meningitis A

5 Oct 2023

11 min read

Meningitis Videos Spotlight on meningitis

The inspiration for Wegovy and Ozempic. Vaclav Sebek/Shutterstock

Wegovy was inspired by Gila monster venom – here are some other drugs with surprising origins

15 Sep 2023

5 min read

Cross-posts Innovation

Rachida Moussa (in red), a community health worker in Niamey, Niger, pictured with children living in one of the communities she visits regularly. Credit: Isaac Griberg

Back to basics: the journey of “health for all”

26 May 2023

12 min read

WHA UHC

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