Global Health

Cambodian women wear masks as they walk in a market in Phnom Penh in Oct. 2009. That month a second Cambodian died from swine flu, health officials said. Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

A female mosquito acquires a blood meal. This species, Aedes aegypti, carries and transmits the dengue fever virus. James Gathany/CDC hide caption

A micrograph shows red blood cells infected by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. John C. Tan/AP hide caption

French surgeon Pierre Foldes in his Paris office in 2004. Foldes performs reconstructive surgery on women who have undergone genital mutilation. He recently authored a study on the long-term effects of the surgery. Jean Ayissi/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Gao Weiwei, a doctor of the Beijing Chest Hospital which specializes in the treatment of tuberculosis, talks to a patient suspected to have tuberculosis at the hospital in Tongzhou, near Beijing, March 27, 2009. Ng Han Guan/AP hide caption

A makeshift latrine hangs over the water at the edge of Cite de Dieu, a slum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. John W. Poole / NPR hide caption

No corner of the world is safe from cancer. iStockphoto hide caption

A Pakistani man wheels Jamshid, an 8-year-old girl with polio, around the outskirts of the capital Islamabad last July. Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

The Anopheles stephensi mosquito transmits the malarial parasite while dining on human blood. You can find this type of mosquito in Afghanistan, China, India, Thailand and the Middle East. CDC hide caption

A mother and child wait to receive treatment at the HIV clinic in Nyagasambu, Rwanda, in Feb. 2008. The clinic was built by the Washington-based Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation with a grant from the PEPFAR program. Shashank Bengali/MCT/Landov hide caption

Here goes nothing. A big jump over the Zambezi River in Africa. James Whatley/Flickr hide caption

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius (center) talks to a health worker during a visit to Eliazar Germain hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Monday. It's Sebelius' first visit to the country. Ramon Espinosa/AP hide caption

Rice farmer Alexi Rochnel shows his blank cholera vaccination card. April is the beginning of Haiti's rainy season, which will likely intensify Haiti's cholera outbreak. John W. Poole/NPR hide caption

Rice farmer Alexi Rochnel shows his blank cholera vaccination card. April is the beginning of Haiti's rainy season, which will likely intensify Haiti's cholera outbreak. John W. Poole / NPR hide caption