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Global Health

Monday January 31, 2011

Bill Gates' Goal: Get Rid Of Polio, Forever

January 31, 2011 • The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has released its annual letter, outlining goals for the coming year. What's on the list? Getting rid of polio, once and for all. Vaccines reduced the disease in the U.S. by 99 percent, but it still erupts in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Bill Gates' Goal: Get Rid Of Polio, Forever

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Gates Calls For More Money To Stamp Out Polio

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, his wife Melinda French Gates and British Prime Minister David Cameron at the World Economic Forum on January 28, 2011, in Davos, Switzerland. Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

Shots - Health News

Gates Calls For More Money To Stamp Out Polio

January 31, 2011 • Philanthropist Bill Gates says the time is now for the world to redouble efforts to eliminate polio by funding efforts to vaccinate vulnerable people against the disease. An international initiative to wipe out the disease faces a $720 million budget shortfall.

Monday January 24, 2011

Shots - Health News

Global Health Fund Finds Some Fraud, Recoups Losses

January 24, 2011 • A big international health fund learned from an internal audit that $34 million in grants weren't reaching the people they were meant for. But an expert on health and corruption says the group is getting better at uncovering corruption and owning up to it.

Thursday January 20, 2011

Mixed Results For Portugal's Great Drug Experiment

January 20, 2011 • When Portugal decriminalized all illegal drugs in 2000, officials hoped to reduce addiction rates and drug-related violence. Today, more users are in rehab, but drug use is on the rise, and reporter Keith O'Brien says the policy has made the problem worse.

Mixed Results For Portugal's Great Drug Experiment

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Thursday January 13, 2011

Shots - Health News

To Curb Medical Arms Race, Go After Suppliers

January 13, 2011 • Older and wealthier populations that better health may drive some national demand for care. But the supply of services remains a big part of the cost problem.

Tuesday January 11, 2011

Biking Ability Can Help Diagnose Parkinson's

A Dutch man rides his bike by windmills in Kinderdijk, the Netherlands in 2007. Dutch researchers have found that the ability to ride a bike can help doctors distinguish between two similar forms of Parkinson's disease. Evert-jan Daniels/AP hide caption

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Evert-jan Daniels/AP

Shots - Health News

Biking Ability Can Help Diagnose Parkinson's

January 11, 2011 • Simple tests can sometimes tell doctors a lot. How well a person rides a bike can help differentiate two different forms of Parkinson's disease, Dutch doctors have found.

Friday January 7, 2011

Health

Paul Offit On The Anti-Vaccine Movement

January 7, 2011 • In his new book, vaccine researcher Paul Offit contends that some parents' decisions not to vaccinate their kids are harming others. Offit discusses the anti-vaccine movement, and weighs in on a new report calling a 1998 study linking autism and vaccines an "elaborate fraud."

Paul Offit On The Anti-Vaccine Movement

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Monday January 3, 2011

Shots - Health News

Few U.S. Medical Tourists Go Overseas For Care

January 3, 2011 • Relatively few Americans head overseas for bargains in health care, University of Iowa researchers found. Foreign care may still be an inexpensive alternative for some uninsured patients, though.

Thursday December 23, 2010

Scientific American: U.S. Pig Farms May Be 'Flu Factories'

The next pandemic flu virus could come from pigs, but are we monitoring their health closely enough? Matthias Rietschel/APN hide caption

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Matthias Rietschel/APN

Shots - Health News

Scientific American: U.S. Pig Farms May Be 'Flu Factories'

December 23, 2010 • Writer Helen Branswell says in an article in Scientific American that American pig farms are virtual "flu factories" because monitoring of animal health is so weak.

Wednesday December 22, 2010

Opinion

National Review: New Antibiotics, Stat

The National Review

December 22, 2010 • The development of new antibiotics has stalled, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria have grown in strength and number. Josh Bloom and Gilbert Ross of National Review argue that the FDA's regulations for drug companies slowed the growth of these medicines. Now Congress must act to spark new innovation in antibiotics.

Friday December 17, 2010

Health Experts: Cholera Vaccination In Haiti Not Possible Until Spring

A boy with symptoms of cholera waits for treatment at the St. Catherine hospital in Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince on Nov. 10, 2010. Cholera has sickened more than 91,000 Haitians and killed more than 2,000. Ramon Espinosa/AP hide caption

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Ramon Espinosa/AP

Shots - Health News

Health Experts: Cholera Vaccination In Haiti Not Possible Until Spring

December 17, 2010 • There's only enough cholera vaccine for 50,000 people, so the majority of Haiti's 9 million people will have to wait until more becomes available.

Tuesday December 14, 2010

End To Malaria Deaths In Sight, But Progress Is Fragile

Two sisters rest under a mosquito net during a July monsoon rain in Prey Mong kol village in Cambodia's Pailin province. Paula Bronstein/Getty Images AsiaPac hide caption

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Paula Bronstein/Getty Images AsiaPac