The bite of a cobra can paralyze its victims and, if enough venom is released, fatally stop their breathing. It's estimated that more than 75 percent of patients in India who die from a snake's bite never make it to the hospital. STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Ali Maow Maalin said he avoided getting the smallpox vaccine as a young man because he was afraid of needles. He didn't want others to make the same mistake with polio. Courtesy of the World Health Organization hide caption
A midwife holds a newborn at Rabia Balkhi Women's Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Jonathan Saruk/International Medical Corps hide caption
A mother and daughter walk home after attending a community meeting about eradicating female genital mutilation in the western Senegalese village of Diabougo. Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters /Landov hide caption
A Yemeni child receives a polio vaccine in the capital city of Sanaa. The Yemen government launched an immunization campaign last month in response to the polio outbreak in neighboring Somalia. Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Ado Ibrahim carries his son Aminu through a village in northern Nigeria. Aminu was paralyzed by polio in August. David Gilkey/NPR hide caption
Vaccines against the HPV virus are already used to prevent cervical and anal cancer. Harry Cabluck/AP hide caption
Children with tuberculosis sleep outside at Springfield House Open Air School in London in 1932. Like sanatoriums, these schools offered TB sufferers a place to receive the top treatment of the day: fresh air and sunshine. Fox Photos/Getty Images hide caption
Pandoraviruses were discovered lurking in the mud of Chile and Australia, half a world apart. courtesy of Chantal Abergel and Jean-Michel Claverie hide caption
A Doctors Without Borders support counselor waits for MDR-TB patients at a clinic in Nukus, Uzbekistan. Courtesy of Misha Friedman hide caption
Dale Hippensteel, manages the Sheboygan County health department. Jeffrey Phelps/For NPR hide caption
People living in affluent neighborhoods in north central Dallas were most likely to get infected in 2012. Those neighborhoods were also hit hardest in the 2006 outbreak. JAMA hide caption
