Bulbul Aktar, a shasthya kormi, or community health worker, with the malaria elimination program in Bangladesh, goes door to door to treat malaria patients. "This is my job, my duty," says Aktar. "Every single home, I have to know about them and visit them." Fatima Tuj Johora for NPR hide caption
President Joe Biden speaks at the virtual Global COVID-19 Summit on Sept. 22, 2021, in Washington, D.C. On May 12, the White House will host the second Global COVID-19 Summit. Evan Vucci/AP hide caption
A nurse checks a baby in a hospital basement being used as a bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine. More than 300 health facilities lie within conflict lines or areas that Russia claims to control, according to the World Health Organization. Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Hussein Raad, a 22-year-old college student, gets his second dose of the Pfizer vaccine at Zayoona Mall in Baghdad. Ahmed Kusy Mostafa hide caption
Dr. Storm Bissict, 35, dives in False Bay along the coast of Cape Town. It's her way of decompressing from her hectic pandemic days. Charlie Shoemaker for NPR hide caption
Polio vaccinator Zeenat Parveen, holding the clipboard, and a volunteer go door-to-door to reach children in Rawalpindi, a city near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. Diaa Hadid/NPR hide caption
Health workers are briefed before conducting COVID-19 swab tests on public transportation drivers at a slum area in Manila. The Philippines is one of the Southeast Asian countries hit hardest by the pandemic. Ezra Acayan/Getty Images hide caption
Wilson County Commissioner Andy Miller says Dr. McKenney created a storm when she criticized President Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Jim McLean/KCUR hide caption
The federal government estimates one in 10 healthcare workers experience substance use disorder. There is rising concern that medical professionals are stealing powerful opioid pain medications meant for their patients. Kaz Fantone/NPR hide caption
A health worker in personal protective equipment stands in a COVID-19 intensive care unit in Taiz, Yemen. Ahmad Al-Basha/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Left: Jana De Brauwere, a contact tracer in California. Right: Rachel Saykpah, a nurse in Liberia who has overseen contact tracers in Africa since 2014. Jana De Brauwere; Rachel Saykpah hide caption
A pint of beer is poured at the 2015 Great British Beer Festival in London. A brewery in the northeast of England is giving away beer to help raise money for the National Health Service during the coronavirus pandemic. Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP hide caption
Medical workers transfer a patient from the Doctors Without Borders cholera treatment unit to the intensive care unit at the general hospital in Masisi, Democratic Republic of Congo. Alexis Huget/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
In South Sudan, the staff of Doctors Without Borders has newly devised "runaway bags," filled with medical supplies so the health workers can provide care if people have to flee because of conflict. MSF hide caption
On August 8, 2016, a suicide bomber killed 74 people and wounded 112 others at a government-run hospital in Quetta, Pakistan. Arshad Butt/AP hide caption
Caroline Williams is a community organizer in New Kru Town, a suburb of Monrovia. Here's how she got her message through to Liberians about preventing Ebola: "We talk to them, talk to them, talk to them. At last they started listening to us. All the methods that we been giving them, by God's will, they accepted." Jason Beaubien/NPR hide caption
Light shines through the chlorine-stained windows in the blood-testing area at Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town, Monrovia, Liberia. David Gilkey/NPR hide caption
A Kaiser mental health worker with the National Union of Healthcare Workers looks through a pile of signs Monday during day one of a week-long demonstration outside of a Kaiser Permanente hospital in San Francisco. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption
Theses 32 health workers are among the 360-plus who sacrificed their lives in the fight against Ebola. Their names are listed below. The photos are displayed at the Liberian Midwives Association in Monrovia. NPR Composite hide caption
Norma Melendez, a community health worker with City Health Works, walks along Second Avenue on her way to meet a client. City Health Works is an organization that is attempting to bring an African model of health care delivery to the United States. Bryan Thomas for NPR hide caption
A team from Dr. Paul Farmer's Partners In Health nonprofit visited southeast Liberia's Martha Tubman Memorial Hospital in September. The hospital has a new, six-bed isolation unit financed by the U.N. Rebecca Rollins/courtesy of Partners in Health hide caption
Lorenzo Dorr works at the grass-roots level to help deliver health services in far-flung areas of Liberia. In July, he was on his way to meet with community health providers in Konobo, one of Liberia's most remote rural districts. Courtesy of Tiyatien Health/Last Mile Health hide caption