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Thursday, April 04, 2013

Shots - Health News

Change In Donors Is Remaking Global Giving

Bill Gates watches as a child is vaccinated at the Ahentia Health Centre in Ghana in March.

April 4, 2013 Less money is now coming from wealthy, industrialized nations and more is flowing from private foundations, corporations and even countries that only a few years ago were recipients themselves.

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Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Shots - Health News

How To Get Rid Of Polio For Good? There's A $5 Billion Plan

A child is immunized against polio at the health clinic in a farming village in northern Nigeria. The procedure involves pinching two drops of the vaccine into the child's mouth. For full protection, the child needs three doses, spaced out over time.

April 2, 2013 Last year there were just over 200 cases of polio in remote parts of Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now, a new $5.5 billion plan aims to eliminate the disease for good by 2018.

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On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

Friday, March 29, 2013

Shots - Health News

In India, Discrimination Against Women Can Start In The Womb

Dr. Nayna Patel performs an ultrasound exam on Rinku Macwan, at a hospital near Ahmedabad, India. It's illegal in India for doctors to reveal a baby's sex during these exams, but many do it anyway.

March 29, 2013 Indian mothers are more likely to get more prenatal care when they're having a boy, health economists say. These small decisions about iron supplements and tetanus shots can have a profound effect on a girl's life, the researchers argue.

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Monday, March 25, 2013

Shots - Health News

Gates Foundation Says It's Time For A Snazzier Condom

An estimated 15 billion condoms are manufactured each year and 750 million people use them.

March 25, 2013 Condoms have evolved little since latex ones were first manufactured in the 1920s. Bill Gates is hoping to change that. His foundation is giving $100,000 to anyone who can come up with a condom that men or women actually want to wear.

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Friday, March 22, 2013

Shots - Health News

Talk Globally, Go Locally: Cellphones Vs. Clean Toilets

A young boy plays on a commode during an event for World Toilet Day in New Delhi in November. An estimated 131 million Indian homes don't have a latrine or a clean toilet.

March 22, 2013 Six billion people around the world now own cellphones, while only 4.5 billion people have a safe place to use the bathroom, the United Nations said Thursday. Improving sanitation could help prevent thousands of kids from dying each day of waterborne diseases.

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Thursday, March 21, 2013

Shots - Health News

Tuberculosis Cases In The U.S. Keep Sliding

About a third of the world's population is thought to be infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but only a small fraction of people get the disease.

March 21, 2013 After making a comeback in the late 1980s, tuberculosis has steadily declined in the U.S. Last year alone, TB cases dropped 6 percent compared to 2011, making it the first time, the number of annual infections was below 10,000.

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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Shots - Health News

Dengue Fever No Longer Just A Visitor To Florida Keys

If you catch dengue fever in the Western Hemisphere, it most likely came from the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

March 13, 2013 Decades after its eradication, the "breakbone fever" has become endemic again in the Florida Keys. Scientists say that Floridians infected during a recent outbreak didn't catch the virus abroad but rather got a dengue strain that's unique to Key West.

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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Shots - Health News

Can Kidney Transplants Ease Strain On Gaza's Health System?

A Palestinian dialysis patient is treated at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City in 2010. Many kidney patients in Gaza struggle to get proper dialysis therapy because machines are often overbooked.

March 12, 2013 Years of war have overtaxed Gaza's hospitals, making it tough for kidney patients to get good treatment. Thanks to help from British doctors, Gaza surgeons are now being trained to perform kidney transplants. They hope to help ease the huge demand for dialysis, but transplants have their own cost.

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On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

Friday, March 08, 2013

Shots - Health News

Flu Risk And Weather: It's Not The Heat, It's The Humidity

A woman fends off the last blast of winter and the flu season in Philadelphia this month.

March 8, 2013 Why do people in Boston get the flu when it's cold, while people in Senegal get sick when it's hot? Humidity is a big part of the explanation. But how flu spreads in the tropics and more temperate climates appears to be different.

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Shots - Health News

A Man's Journey From Nepal To Texas Triggers Global TB Scramble

Although tuberculosis is declining around the world, drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are on the rise.

March 8, 2013 Texas health officials have quarantined a Nepalese man, who illegally entered the U.S. while infected with a particularly dangerous type of tuberculosis. He traveled through 13 countries, potentially exposing hundreds of people around the world to the pathogen.

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Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Shots - Health News

Often A Health Care Laggard, U.S. Shines In Cancer Treatment

The U.S. ranks first in the world at stopping brain cancers, epidemiologists reported Monday. Here neurosurgeon Dr. Roger Hudgins and his assistant, Holly Zeller of Akron, Ohio, look at an MRI scan before performing surgery to remove a brain tumor.

March 5, 2013 Researchers report that the U.S. ranks among the top countries at treating cancers of the brain, colon and breast. But it still lags behind most of Western Europe when it comes to drug abuse, heart disease and kidney problems.

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Monday, March 04, 2013

Shots - Health News

Scientists Report First Cure Of HIV In A Child, Say It's A Game-Changer

Daily medications for young children with HIV include both tablets and liquid drugs in syringes.

March 4, 2013 Scientists say a Mississippi child has been cured of HIV. The research findings, released Sunday, could help cure other HIV-infected newborns.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Shots - Health News

Strategy To Prevent HIV In Newborns Sparks Enthusiasm And Skepticism

By taking antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy, this Tanzanian mother lowered the risk of passing HIV to her daughter.

February 28, 2013 Every year about 300,000 babies in sub-Saharan Africa are born with HIV. A new strategy aims to reduce these infections by putting every pregnant woman with HIV on drug treatment for the rest of her life. The approach has worked well, so far, in the small country of Malawi.

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Shots - Health News

What Happened To The Aid Meant To Rebuild Haiti?

Many homes that were rebuilt after the earthquake in 2010 are even more dangerous than the original ones. This three-story home was put up after the quake but is already slated for demolition to make way for an 18-unit housing project.

February 28, 2013 Three years after an earthquake destroyed much of Haiti's capital, it's clear that only a fraction of the $9 billion pledged in international relief reached the country. Most of what did arrive went to short-term relief, instead of rebuilding people's homes.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Shots - Health News

U.S. Doctors Head Overseas To Train, Not Just Treat

Partnerships instead of short-term help: Jean Jumeau Batsch, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, is collaborating with Dr. Ambereen Sleemi, from New York City, to build a training program for Haitian OB-GYNs.

February 26, 2013 Many American doctors are nurses are helping to build medical schools abroad, as funding agencies push for this collaborative style of philanthropy. Even former President Clinton is getting involved. He's launched a $15 million initiative to revamp Rwanda's health care system.

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