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September 26, 2012 Scientists have partially decoded the genetic sequence of a new virus, which has killed one man and hospitalized another. Advances in sequencing technologies have helped health workers rapidly respond to the virus in ways that they couldn't during the SARS epidemic of 2002.

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September 26, 2012 Vanessa Kerry, a daughter of Sen. John Kerry, has created a nonprofit to partner with the Peace Corps in sending doctors and nurses abroad. In return, the organization pays off a portion of the volunteers' school loans. The goal is to reduce the severe shortage of medical workers in developing countries.

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September 24, 2012 A virus, which is genetically different than any seen before, has killed one man and hospitalized another. The virus comes from the same family as SARS, but it appears to be less contagious.

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September 24, 2012 With local hospitals in Durban, South Africa, strained by the AIDS epidemic, city leaders are trying to restore and reopen a historic children's hospital shut down in the 1980s during apartheid. The hospital originally opened in 1931 with a mandate to serve kids of all races.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

September 21, 2012 Pakistan is one of the last three countries to still have entrenched polio. To eradicate the virus, a group of "social mobilizers" travels to hard-hit slums to help overcome social and physical barriers to vaccination.

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September 19, 2012 An experimental program by the Global Fund brought more than 100 million malaria treatments to people in sub-Saharan Africa last year, a panel of public health experts said on Monday. But time may have run out for the program to prove it's worth continuing as the Global Fund's budget declines.

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September 19, 2012 The World Health Organization has confirmed 72 cases of the dreaded virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo since May; 23 of them are health care workers. Despite elaborate protective garb and other precautions, it's hard for doctors, nurses and health aides to avoid virus-laden bodily fluids of Ebola patients.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

September 18, 2012 Women with HIV have a high risk of getting cervical cancer, but the traditional screening method for the disease — a pap smear — isn't available in many poor countries. Now doctors have developed a cheap, simple alternative way to detect cervical cancer, and it's saving lives in Africa and Asia.

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On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

September 13, 2012 The number of deaths from an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo surged in the past week, prompting concern that the outbreak was spreading. A spokesman from the World Health Organization says the outbreak is not out of control.

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September 10, 2012 In a study with about 4,000 Thai schoolchildren, a vaccine for dengue fever works well against some strains of the dengue virus. But the overall level of protection was lower than hoped for. The results suggest that a vaccine for dengue fever can be developed eventually.

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September 6, 2012 Testing everyone for HIV and then giving them early treatment could theoretically eliminate the epidemic in South Africa. A mathematical model of this "test and treat" strategy suggest that it might be more expensive and take significantly longer than previously predicted.

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September 5, 2012 A vaginal ring that releases a drug against HIV shows promise in an animal study as a way to prevent infections. The results bolster hopes that an ongoing clinical trial of a similar ring in people will prove to be successful.

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September 4, 2012 The results comes from Zanzibar, an island state of Kenya, where half the people in six rural and urban areas received two doses of oral cholera vaccine. The vaccinations led to fewer bacteria circulating, lowering the infection risks even for those who weren't vaccinated.

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August 31, 2012 A team of doctors and scientists, known as disease detectives, fly around the world on a moments notice to investigate mystery illnesses or contain outbreaks. These Sherlock Holmes of medicine chatted on Twitter about what it's like to be a disease detective and how you snag the gig.

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