Global Health

Surgeons perform a cesarean section. A new report raises concerns about rising rates of this procedure around the world, from Brazil to China. Getty Images hide caption

Bryn Sobott of the FREO2 Foundation presents his group's solution to pneumonia treatment — an oxygen delivery machine that can operate using the energy generated by running water — at a pitch competition organized by Saving Lives At Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development in Washington, D.C. Pearl Mak/NPR hide caption

A colored scanning electron micrograph of a female Anopheles mosquito, a vector for the malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax. Dennis Kunkel/Science Source hide caption

Patients are treated at an Army ward in Kansas during the influenza epidemic of 1918. About 675,000 Americans died of the flu known as "la grippe." NYPL/Science Source/Getty Images hide caption

Two businessmen reach to shake hands across a red line. Gary Waters/Getty Images/Ikon Images hide caption

Influenza covers its shell with two types of accessories: the H spike, blue, and the N spike, red. Here the flu particle is sliced open to show its genetic material. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases hide caption

In August 2014, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, talked with Doctors Without Borders staff during a visit to an Ebola treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia. Tommy Trenchard for NPR hide caption

Clockwise from top left: Bad selfie; "tree man" disease; Hadza man eating honeycomb; toilet from Amber, India; mothers from Namibia's Himba tribe and deer tick. Clockwise from top left: SAIH Norway/Screenshot by NPR; Hadassah; Matthieu Paley/National Geographic; Zoriah Miller for Dollar Street; Jose Luis Trisan/Getty; Hadynyah/Getty; and Stephen Reiss for NPR. hide caption

Researchers draw blood from a boy enrolled in the dengue study at a clinic in Managua, Nicaragua. Paolo Harris Paz hide caption

The medical community has reason for cautious optimism in fighting the Ebola virus in Democratic Republic of the Congo: A new vaccine has been created since the 2014 West Africa outbreak. Frederick Murphy/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via AP hide caption

Close-up of tzoallis being made during a summer nutrition workshop held by Puente a la Salud, a group based in Oaxaca, Mexico, that is helping to push an amaranth comeback. An ancient Aztec staple, tzoallis are made of amaranth and corn flour, agave honey and amaranth cereal. Courtesy of Puente a la Salud Comunitaria hide caption