“The next epidemic," as philanthropist Bill Gates wrote recently in The New England Journal of Medicine, will likely be an airborne agent, far more infectious than Ebola—and the world is utterly unprepared, writes Michael Gerson in an op-ed. To get to preparedness, he…
Pakistan’s Ulema Mashaikh Council, a leading religious organization, issued a fatwa last week to endorse immunization drives—especially for polio—in the country. After polio immunization workers have been targeted and killed in Pakistan recently, the fatwa encouraged…
The UK's health care system is falling short in supporting the mental health needs of women before and after pregnancy, a Lancet editorial states. The piece, which calls for systematic research on perinatal mental health care, highlights new qualitative research from the…
Half a century ago in China’s Rudong county, communist officials heeded the government warnings about overpopulation and pioneered a 1-child policy a decade before it went national in 1979. Today, it’s a window on China’s demographic future, according to this Bloomberg…
They're frequent visitors to many US emergency rooms—the so-called "super utilizers" who make their way to hospitals for health problems often tied to poverty, homelessness and mental illness. New York Times journalist Sabrina Tavernise explores pilot programs that are…
In the 26 states that expanded Medicaid benefits under the Affordable Care Act, new diabetes diagnoses of Medicaid recipients in the first 1/2 of 2014 jumped by 23% over the year before. That compares with a less than 1% increase in states that didn’t expand Medicaid,…
The BRICS countries need to step up their investments and efforts to stem the scourge of TB, writes Salmaan Keshavjee in NPR’s Goats and Soda blog in advance of tomorrow’s World TB Day. 9 million people become infected with TB each year and more than 1.5 million people die…
Last week's Supreme Court case challenging a key component of the Affordable Care Act overshadowed some positive—and overlooked—news on the Obamacare front, The New Yorker reports.
3 out of 4 Ghanaians are satisfied with the quality of their country in terms of progress in political voice, and the provision of health and education—enviable proof that a young democracy can deliver. Challenges and limitations remain, however.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is launching a network of disease-surveillance teams to conduct child autopsies in poor countries, with an initial investment of $75 million, it announced yesterday.
