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Necator americanus, the New World hookworm, is as long and thin as a vermicelli noodle. It will slip under your skin and travel through the blood to your trachea, where you will swallow it and give it a free ride to your small intestine. Upon arrival, it will open its tiny jaw, dig its teeth into your intestinal wall and begin to drink your blood. And it could be the key to making millions of people healthier. (Kaplan, 10/26)

What if a blood test could reveal that your child is at high risk for early heart disease years in the future, giving you a chance to prevent it now? A big study in England did that — screening thousands of babies for inherited risk — and found it was twice as common as has been thought. The study also revealed parents who had the condition but didn’t know it, and had passed it on to their children. Ninety percent of them started taking preventive medicines after finding out. (Marchione, 10/26)

When the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released a statement saying there wasn't enough evidence to determine whether the standard pelvic exam was beneficial for women without symptoms and who are not pregnant, it might have felt like welcome advice for women who dread the annual precautionary look. But that doesn't mean the exams will — or should — be abandoned by everyone, says Dr. Samuel Smith, chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center and a board member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' Council on Patient Safety in Women's Health Care. (Cohn, 10/26)

A cancer-causing heavy metal found in water wells near coal ash pits and other industrial sites is much more widespread and naturally occurring than previously thought, university researchers said Wednesday. (Dalesio, 10/26)

Margaret Boemer first sensed something was wrong when her ultrasound technician stayed unusually quiet during a routine 16-week prenatal checkup.It had already been an arduous road to get to that point. Months earlier, Boemer had suffered a miscarriage. When she conceived again, she and her husband were delighted to discover it was with twins — but they lost one of the babies about six weeks into the pregnancy. Soon, doctors would approach Boemer with more grim news: The child she was carrying had sacrococcygeal teratoma, a rare tumor that appeared at the base of baby's tailbone. (Wang, 10/26)