For more comfortable but still provocative neckwear, check out Infectious Awareables, the brainchild of a former dentist seeking to promote awareness of infectious diseases. The company’s ties, scarves, and underwear let you parade around in silk or cotton patterns derived from photomicrographs of HIV, Ebola virus, dental placque, herpes, or several other of your favorite pathogens. Tags on many of the items describe the featured microbe, and some of the proceeds are donated to education and research groups. The merchandise on display at the company’s Web site, www.iawareables.com, looks fairly tasteful, but we wonder about the appeal of gonorrhea-festooned boxer shorts.