The Good: Most patients suffering from depression can be treated successfully with therapy and/or medication. There are some patients though, that cannot find a remedy in either therapy or medication. It is these severe cases that led to the lobotomy crazy of decades ago. Lobotomies, as you probably know, led to patients being detached and kept them from living a normal life. A new procedure would work on the same premise—that the brain is the source of the depression—but would allow patients to live a more normal life.

The procedure involves implanting tiny electrodes to act like a pacemaker and adjust electric currents in the brain. The electrodes were originally used to treat Parkinson’s sufferers and successfully ended their tremors. When placed in the section of the brain that controls mood, the electric currents can be fixed so that the patients are no longer chronically depressed. The procedure has only be tried on a small population of patients but so far the results are promising.

The Bad: As you have probably heard, there was a major outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease in China that caused the deaths of many children. Another virus in the same family, the Coxsackievirus B1, has made a dramatic reappearance in the United States. The virus seems to reappear every three or four years and has been known to hospitalize infants. This year five children were not just hospitalized, they were killed by the virus. While the CDC says that no panic should be raised yet, the virus is at its strongest during the spring and summer. What does this mean? If you have or are near children or especially infants, please wash your hands and keep children away from diaper bins.