The World from PRX

tropical diseases

Dengue, Zika and chikungunya viruses are spread by the Aedes species of mosquito, like the Aedes albopictus pictured here
Disease
An unlikely hero could help in the fight against deadly mosquito-borne disease
People line up outside a hospital.
Health & Medicine
There’s a way for modern medicine to cure diseases even when the treatments aren’t profitable
A man sits while getting his temperature checked.
Health & Medicine
‘No place for complacency’ as Ebola detected in eastern DR Congo
A woman holds a pamphlet in front of a blue door.
Health & Medicine
Leprosy in India is back, but it never really went away
A baboon stakes out a walkway near the entrance of Tanzania's Udzungwa National Park. With human settlement at the base of the still wild Udzungwa Mountains growing fast, humans and wild animals are coming into ever more frequent contact, creating what on
Environment
To prevent the next Ebola, scientists try to catch new viruses before they break out
As the Ebola epidemic peaks, new challenges are emerging in Liberia
Health
Now that Ebola is subsiding, the question is what to do with contaminated sewage
At Redemption Hospital in Liberia, health workers screen patients for Ebola at the entrance to the facility, cleaning them off with a chlorine solution, taking their temperature and asking a series of questions. "At our hospital we have tried to create a
Health
Ebola is creating a new epidemic of untreated illness and injury
Jimmy Carter
Health
President Jimmy Carter is still fighting to eradicate tropical diseases
Nurse Kaci Hickox and her boyfriend, Ted Wilbur, speak with the media outside of their home in Fort Kent, Maine, on October 31, 2014. Hickox defied quarantine orders in New Jersey and Maine after returning from West Africa but testing negative for Ebola.
Health
Calm down — America is officially Ebola-free
Sierra Leonean nurse Veronica Koroma (left) and doctor Donald Samuel Grant (right) stand by a patient in the Lassa fever ward at Kenema Government Hospital in February, 2011
Health
West Africans have another virus to worry about — Lassa fever
An endangered mountain gorilla rests inside a forest in a Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Rwanada.
Health
We still don’t know for sure how Ebola reached humans
Housing Works CEO Charles King, second from left, speaks out against the current quarantine rules put into effect in New York and New Jersey following Ebola fears in the region outside of Bellevue Hospital in New York on October 27, 2014.
Health
US medical workers strike back at strict Ebola quarantines
Liberian American Shoana Solomon started a campaign called "I am a Liberian, not a virus," to combat the stigma of Ebola.
Health
The ‘I am Liberian, not a virus’ campaign confronts the stigma of Ebola
Government health workers are seen during the administration of blood tests for the Ebola virus in Kenema, Sierra Leone, on June 25, 2014.
Medicine
The race is on to make a better Ebola test kit
A man washes his hands at a tap outside the Green Pharmacy at Area 8 in Abuja, Nigeria.
Health
Nigeria’s government stunned critics in acting quickly to make the country ‘Ebola free’
Eurasian brown bear
Global Scan
A computer saves a Russian man from a bear attack
A worker from a private company fumigates a property for mosquitoes in Port-au-Prince, May 23, 2014. The painful mosquito-borne virus called Chikungunya is spreading quickly through the Caribbean, causing alarm in Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Repub
Health
Jamaica declares a state of emergency to try to stop the spread of painful chikungunya virus
Kate Winslet portrays CDC investigator Dr. Erin Mears in the 2011 film, "Contagion."
Health
If you want to know what CDC scientists are going through, check out Hollywood’s ‘Contagion’
Health workers wearing protective equipment are pictured at the Island Clinic in Monrovia, Liberia on September 30, 2014, where patients are treated for Ebola.
Health
Even in the US, a doctor who treats Ebola is treated like a ‘half hero, half pariah’
US Marines have their temperatures taken upon arrival at Roberts International airport outside Monrovia, Liberia, on October 9, 2014.
Health
America’s ambassador in Liberia says progress must be quicker on Ebola
Cave art
Global Scan
This cave art discovery changes what we thought we knew about the emergence of humanity
An ambulance enters the emergency area at the Alcorcón hospital outside Madrid. The Spanish nurse who contracted Ebola while treating infected patients is currently in isolation at the facility.
Media
There’s a fine line between reporting about Ebola and spreading panic
Fruit bats like the ones pictured here are often key vectors for diseases like Ebola, and disturbing their habitats may have made humans more vulnerable.
Environment
Here’s how cutting down West African trees made us vulnerable to Ebola
John Karanjah helps a guest with a picnic breakfast
Economics
Kenya is thousands of miles away from the Ebola outbreak, but tourists are still staying away
A health worker takes a passenger's temperature with an infrared digital laser thermometer at Abidjan's Felix Houphouet Boigny International Airport in Cote d'Ivoire.
Health
An Ebola patient in Dallas dies amid demands for more screening in the US
A man washes his hands at a facility outside the Green Pharmacy, Area 8, in Abuja, Nigeria on September 1, 2014.
Health
Precautions against Ebola are simple, but hard to guarantee every single time
Some of the ultrastructural morphology displayed by an Ebola virus virion is revealed in this undated handout colorized transmission electron micrograph.
Health
The current Ebola outbreak is huge, but at least it’s not spreading particularly quickly
Health workers carry buckets of disinfectant at the newly-constructed Island Clinic and Ebola treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia, September 25, 2014.
Medicine
New mobile clinics are helping aid workers treat Ebola patients in Liberia
Friends in Jesus African International Church
Health
Where Ebola hits home in the United States
A fan of Ivory coast holds a sign with a message against Ebola during the 2015 African Nations Cup qualifying soccer match between Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone.
Medicine
Why Ebola patients are being turned away at the gates of treatment centers in Liberia
A Student Union mosaic wall at University of Akron in Ohio. The university is one of several in the US screening students for Ebola that are returning to campus from West African countries.
Health
Universities are screening students from West Africa for Ebola as they return to school
Members of a Red Cross burial team put on personal protective equipment before entering the home of a woman suspected of dying of Ebola in the village of Dia on Monday, August 18, 2014.
Health
A photographer gets up close with the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone
A boy looks at posters issued by the Liberian government warning against Ebola at Duwala market in Monrovia.
Health
Liberia’s hottest hip-hop station has all the latest Ebola music and news
Residents of West Point, Liberia
Health
Health experts believe the current Ebola outbreak may infect 20,000 before it’s over
Residents in an Ebola quarantine area in the West Point of Monrovia, Liberia, complain to a security officer as they wait for their relatives to bring them food and essentials on August 23, 2014.
Health
Ebola survivors return to lives of fear and ostracism
Kent Brantly, who contracted the deadly Ebola virus, smiles during a press conference at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Brantly along with a second American aid worker who contracted Ebola while treating victims of the deadly virus in Libe
Medicine
Two infected Americans are now Ebola-free, but doctors aren’t sure why
Soldiers check people traveling in Bomi County, in the northwestern portion of Liberia, on August 11, 2014.
Health
Fear in Liberia turns violent as a mob attacks an Ebola clinic
An immigration officer wears a face mask at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja August 11, 2014.
Health
Ebola’s spread to Nigeria presents a whole new level of risk
Fruit bats are seen for sale at a food market in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.
Development
As the Ebola crisis rages, West African villagers are warned away from fruit bats
A close up of the ebola virus virion
Health
The ethical debate over the use of an untested Ebola drug
Hatian Marqui Ducarme was hit with the Chikungunya virus in May of this year. After spreading quickly through the Caribbean, public health officials in Florida say the painful mosquito-borne disease has just shown up for the first time in the United State
Environment
After a long journey from Africa, a new tropical disease sets up shop in Florida
Hatian Marqui Ducarme was hit with the Chikungunya virus in May of this year. After spreading quickly through the Caribbean, public health officials in Florida say the painful mosquito-borne disease has just shown up for the first time in the United State
Environment
After a long journey from Africa, a new tropical disease sets up shop in Florida
Medical staff take a blood sample from a suspected Ebola patient at the government hospital in Kenema, July 10, 2014.
Health & Medicine
Tensions mount between healthcare workers and Ebola-infected communities in West Africa
A Sri Lankan man reads the newspaper. People in Sri Lanka are most likely to read the paper in the mornings and evenings, the same times that disease-carrying mosquitoes come out to bite.
Environment
Could reading a newspaper save you from dengue fever?
Global Scan
Could social media photos be costing the lives of African rhinos
Dr. Terrie Taylor examines a child in the malaria ward of Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi.
Health & Medicine
An American doctor may have solved a deadly mystery about malaria
Environment
Brazilians welcome genetically-modified mosquito to help fight dengue fever
Health & Medicine
Tracking Charity: Experts worry effectiveness of bed nets is waning
Environment
For species dependent on monsoon flooding in desert southwest, mosquitoes unwelcome competition
Health & Medicine
Record drought conditions contribute to unprecedented levels of West Nile virus
Health & Medicine
Eradicating Guinea worm disease
Environment
DDT debate heats up
Health & Medicine
Drug-resistant malaria in Cambodia
Arts, Culture & Media
Faces of Elephantiasis: In Nigeria, Patients Remain After the Disease is Gone
Health & Medicine
Over-Treating Malaria in Africa
Robins and West Nile Virus
Emerging Science Note
Emerging Science Note/Mosquito Fish
Emerging Science Note/Inoculating Mosquitos
Emerging Science Note/Mosquito Fish