In The News

Brazil Warns Against Pregnancy Due to Spreading Virus

Shasta Darlington January 4, 2016
Brazilian health officials have warned women to avoid pregnancy until more is known about the Zika virus. Researchers suggest the virus has led to “a surge in newborn microcephaly, a neurological disorder that can result in incomplete brain development,” reports Shasta Darlington for CNN. Zika symptoms include a mild fever, rash, aching joints and headaches. “More than 2,400 suspected cases of...

Bye, Bye, Bananas

Roberto A. Ferdman December 25, 2015
The popular Cavendish banana, representing 99 percent of all export bananas, is under threat. It’s not the first time export bananas have succumbed to a disease, explains Roberto A. Ferdman, after a fungus spread from Australia to South America and destroyed the previous top export banana, Gros Michael. A new variation of the fungus, Tropical Race 4, emerged in Southeast Asia 50 years ago and...

Thank You for Not Smoking

Heather Wipfli October 7, 2015
The passage of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, or FCTC, offers a critical case study of how international law can be harnessed to address public health issues. Heather Wipfli is author of “Global War on Tobacco: Mapping the World's First Public Health Treaty,” and an excerpt of her book was published in Foreign Affairs. With nearly 6 million tobacco-...

MERS’s Best Friend: Ignorance

Helen Branswell June 29, 2015
South Korea has reported 175 cases of infection of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. “Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus (MERS‐CoV) that was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012,” reports the World Health Organization. Writing for Asia Sentinel, Helen Branswell describes how an Egyptian virologist first identified the disease...

Price of Good Health

Amy Nordrum June 22, 2015
Five of the United Nations’ eight millennium goals – eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability – are directly tied to health. The other three – achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and partnering on development – also boost health standards....

The World’s Drinking Problem

May 19, 2015
Widespread alcohol abuse is disruptive for economies, suggests a report from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. Alcohol consumption and related health issues rise with increased wealth, and China and emerging economies are wrestling with growing alcohol consumption: “While more than half of the Chinese population aged 15 years and older do not drink at all, 42 percent of...

Now We Can Edit the Human Genome, The Question Is: Should We?

Michael Brooks May 12, 2015
Researchers in Guangzhou wrote a scientific paper about editing the DNA of a non-viable human embryo for the journal Protein and Cell. The news was met with trepidation. Researchers are eager for tools to cure genetic diseases, but others label the methods as unethical. The researchers, examining embryos with a gene that causes a hereditary blood disorder, applied a “gene editor, a co-operative...