The World from PRX

Disease

Health & Medicine
Ghana approves breakthrough malaria drug for babies — but research is ‘on ice’ amid US funding cuts
8:19
Health & Medicine
PEPFAR and the future of the global fight against HIV
3:22
Health & Medicine
Medical wax museum in Spain showcasing 19th-century diseases is set to close
5:12
Health & Medicine
Ghana battles deadly meningitis outbreak amid shrinking foreign aid and health system struggles
8:16
Natural disasters
As flood waters drop, Brazil faces a waterborne disease outbreak
4:41
Palestinians wait for humanitarian aid on a beachfront in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Feb. 25, 2024.
Israel-Hamas war
‘Everyone is worried about starvation’: Aid worker discusses dire situation in Gaza
parent holds child in doctor’s office
COVID-19
Why kids struggle with long COVID
Air quality levels have been bad in Accra since December as harmattan season kicks in across Ghana. The data coming in shows the situation is not improving.
Climate Change
Hazy skies over Accra: Harsh harmattan season in Ghana leads to health hazards, poor air quality
Children stand in front of the building of the Peruvian Congress as part of a call to demand accountability for cancer patients in Peru, September 2023.
Health & Medicine
Desperate cancer patients in Peru look for options across the Atlantic
COWS GRAZING ON A FARM WITH A GEEEN MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE
Disease
Cow plague threatening ranches in southern Europe
man holding a sign with people passing by in the background
Health
Spain to compensate thalidomide victims decades later
landfill
Health
Trash sorters in Ghana face health and safety risks
COVID-19 antigen home tests indicating a positive result are photographed in New York, April 5, 2023.
COVID-19
Pandemic recovery will require much focus and attention, Dr. Atul Gawande says
A woman walks outside of a COVID-19 testing center at the Incheon International Airport In Incheon, South Korea, on Feb. 10, 2023. 
COVID-19
‘The pandemic is still with us’: The bumpy road to the end of COVID
As vaccination levels drop in Ghana, the threat of a measles outbreak looms.
Health & Medicine
‘Red alert for child health’: A nationwide vaccine shortage hits Ghana amid measles outbreak
a young man in a mask
COVID-19
Three years into the pandemic, mask usage varies from country to country
Boats carrying mining supplies move along the Uraricoera River in Alto Alegre, Roraima state, Brazil, as some miners leave Yanomami Indigenous territory ahead of expected operations against illegal mining, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. 
Environment
Lula declares humanitarian crisis for Brazil’s Yanomami territory, cracks down on illegal mining
people at barbershop
Disease
A spike in ringworm cases in Spain leads to a surprising culprit: the barbershop
The book includes haunting photos from inside the ghetto, along with its record of the medical effects of starvation.
Warsaw Ghetto’s defiant Jewish doctors secretly documented the medical effects of Nazi starvation policies
Haitians line up outside an immigration office as they wait their turns to apply for a passport, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 10, 2023.
Conflict & Justice
‘Haiti has zero elected officials’ as cholera, gang violence persist, journalist says
cat on a chair
Health & Medicine
Desperate pet owners turn to illegal drug markets to cure a rare cat virus 
An ambulance is parked outside Portcullis House, backdropped by the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known as Big Ben, in London, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022.
Jobs
‘Winter of discontent’ for UK as nurses begin strike action
woman with other women and children
Health & Medicine
Health crisis unfolding in Pakistan even as floodwaters recede 
Anastasia, 3, is held by her mother, as she receives treatment at a schoolhouse that has been converted into a field hospital, in Mostyska, western Ukraine, Thursday, March 24, 2022.
Ukraine
The war in Ukraine is hampering efforts to stop a polio outbreak
man waiting at airport
COVID-19
Taiwan reopens its borders after years of COVID controls
Nancy Rose, who contracted COVID-19 in 2021 and continues to exhibit long-haul symptoms including brain fog and memory difficulties, pauses while organizing her desk space, on Jan. 25, 2022, in Port Jefferson, New York.
Coronavirus Conversations
Discussion: Long COVID, the search for answers
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, waves hello to the committee at the start of a House Committee on Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies.
COVID-19
People shouldn’t put their guard down when it comes to COVID, Fauci says
A worker walks alongside the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant's array of digester eggs in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York
Health & Medicine
Why has polio emerged in the US, UK and Israel? A polio eradication expert weighs in.
busy market
West African countries adopt new strategies to encourage COVID-19 vaccination  
A hospital worker carries a tray of medicine at a government-run hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Health & Medicine
Sri Lankan doctors say the country can’t survive on donated drugs forever
Residents of the Accra suburb of Alajo patch up a road after severe flooding destroyed it.
Climate Change
‘Everything is destroyed’: Extreme flooding in Ghana tests climate resilience
A Posh Club performer leads club-goers in a conga-line.
Health
Dancing away the loneliness: In the UK, social prescriptions help fight isolation during the pandemic
University Teaching Hospital in the capital Lusaka, Zambia is home to the first neurology residency program in the country. The program has trained seven neurologists since starting in 2018.
Disease
‘We’re seeing the tip of the iceberg’: Neurologists in Zambia upend understandings of multiple sclerosis in the region
President Joe Biden meets with the White House COVID-19 Response Team on the latest developments related to the omicron variant in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus in Washington, Jan. 4, 2022
COVID-19
‘Hope is not a plan’: Dr. Atul Gawande says global COVID funding is dwindling but the crisis continues
Residents in a sealed-off Shanghai neighborhood receive bulk-ordered food supplies under the monitoring of health workers in hazmat suits
COVID-19
This Shanghai writer and translator shares his experience of the city’s 2-month lockdown
Asylum-seekers pray as part of a vigil following the court order mandating Title 42 remain in place on May 23, 2022.
Immigration
‘That news hit us like a bomb’: Asylum-seekers still in limbo after ruling to keep Title 42 intact
Eno Breathe class on Zoom
COVID-19
How opera techniques are helping people with long COVID breathe easier
A woman wearing a face mask rests on a bench at the green space barricaded with fences and tapes to prevent residents from gathering due to pandemic measures on Thursday, May 19, 2022, in Beijing.
COVID-19
Shanghai’s unvaccinated elderly remain vulnerable under lockdown
A drone sprays insecticide near homes on the outskirts of Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020. Brazil's health ministry launched a campaign to fight the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits dengue, zika and chikungunya, diseases that can generate
Health & Medicine
Brazil’s public health workers race to tackle dengue surge
Ruthie sits next to the natural toilet her owner made for her during the COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai, China
COVID-19
Pet owners in Shanghai struggle to care for their animals during COVID lockdowns
More than 600,000 people have become displaced due to the ongoing drought in Somalia. Many end up at camps like this one in Luuq, Somalia, March 21, 2022.
Climate Change
Fears of famine grow amid worst drought in Somalia in decades
Ukrainian refugees wait for a transport at the central train station in Warsaw, Poland
Coronavirus Conversations
Discussion: Ukraine: The humanitarian catastrophe
Anuja Bali asks a family in Pashan, Pune about their consumption of liquid petroleum gas.
Energy
India’s Warrior Moms tackle indoor air pollution — ‘the silent killer’ 
Children and their caregivers arrive for school in New York
COVID-19
Death toll surpasses 6 million for pandemic now in 3rd year
Pharmacist Kenni Clark injects Robert Champion, of Lawrence, Mass., with a booster dosage of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination clinic at City of Lawrence's "The Center," which serves seniors, families and the community
Coronavirus Conversations
Coronavirus Conversations: What researchers have learned about the omicron variant
People wearing face masks to help protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk along the street in Tokyo, Japan
Coronavirus Conversations
Discussion: What researchers have learned about the omicron variant
The Shell Norco refinery in Norco, Louisiana, Thursday, March 8, 2018.
Health & Medicine
A new interactive map can help assess carcinogenic emissions risk
Dozens take turns to receive a COVID-19 vaccine shot at the Adabraka vaccination center in Accra, Ghana. 
COVID-19
Ghana revs up its COVID-19 vaccination campaign as omicron cases surge
People line up to enter a COVID-19 vaccination clinic with a torch of the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics painted on the staircase in Montreal, Jan. 6, 2022.
COVID-19
‘On the brink’: Canada postpones or cancels tens of thousands of medical procedures amid COVID surge
Medical Technologist Erika Alvarado performs a COVID-19 test on a patient who just delivered a baby outside a hospital in Manila, Philippines, on Dec. 24, 2021.
COVID-19
Health care workers in the Philippines reject new COVID-19 rules as ‘inhumane’
A vial of the Moderna vaccine for the coronavirus.
What does Moderna owe the world?
Pupils wear face masks as they attend class at Kitante Primary School in Kampala, Uganda
Education
Uganda’s schools reopen, ending world’s longest lockdown
Commuters wear protective face masks as they walk through a subway station, in São Paulo, Brazil, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Brazil joined the widening circle of countries to report cases of the omicron variant. 
COVID-19
Brazil heads into latest COVID surge amid public health information blackout
A man gets vaccinated against COVID-19 at a site near Johannesburg, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. 
COVID-19
At least 9 African countries set to produce COVID vaccines, Africa’s CDC chief says
People wearing face masks to curb the spread of COVID-19 walk in downtown Lisbon
COVID-19
A COVID variant of concern or just another ‘scare-iant?’
Medical workers carry a patient infected with the coronavirus on a stretcher at the Syrian American Medical Society Hospital, in the city of Idlib, northwest Syria, Sept. 20, 2021. 
COVID-19
‘I can barely buy bread’: In war-torn Syria, fighting the coronavirus is compounded by immense challenges
A woman holding a distorted alarm clock
How your emotional response to the COVID-19 pandemic changed your behavior and your sense of time
A woman speaks on her mobile phone while waiting for a light rail train, wearing a mask on her chin that she'll be required to pull over her nose and mouth on the train to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, in central Jerusalem.
COVID-19
Israeli researchers try to find COVID ‘threshold’ with fourth vaccine dose
In this April 13, 2010, photo, one gram of psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms, is seen on a scale at New York University in New York. 
Health & Medicine
This Canadian company is betting big on the ‘psychedelic renaissance’
Firebaugh residents perform traditional Aztec dances for the Virgen de Guadalupe celebration.
Las Posadas holiday tradition brings ‘joy to the people’ in California community hit hard by the pandemic