Health & Safety

An image taken over the Phu Chi Fa national park in Thailand.

'Why We Dream' Is A Spirited, Cogent Defense Of Dreams And Dream-Telling

10:39am November 26, 2018

by Lily Meyer

"If we fail to take the simple steps to remember and understand our dreams, we are throwing away a gift from our brains without bothering to open it," writes Alice Robb.

Health & Safety

Infant Mortality Rate Rises Slightly In Guilford County

6:00am November 26, 2018

by Bethany Chafin

The Guilford County Department of Public Health has released the most recent numbers on in

Four-year-old Violet (right) supervises as her mom Margaret Siebers pours a first-ever spoonful of honey for 1-year-old Frances to try. Siebers spent much of the end of her pregnancy with Frances confined to bed rest at her home in Milwaukee.

Rethinking Bed Rest For Pregnancy

5:06am November 26, 2018

by Alison Kodjak

Research indicates bed rest does not improve birth outcomes and can be risky for the mom. So why is it still prescribed by many doctors and midwives for about 20 percent of pregnant women in the U.S.?

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Los Angeles City firefighters Omar Velasquez, center, sleeps as Cory Darrigo, left, and Sam Quan rest in the backyard of home they were protecting after fighting the Woolsey Fire on November 9, 2018 in Westlake Village, Calif.

Understaffed And Overworked: Firefighters Exhausted By Severe California Fires

1:59pm November 25, 2018

by Amanda Morris

As major wildfires increase in California, some firefighters are being pushed to the point of exhaustion — and overtime costs are soaring.

NPR producer Furkan Latif Khan doesn't like to leave her home in New Delhi without her breathing mask — although one doctor told her it might not help all that much.

What It's Like To Breathe Some Of The Most Polluted Air In The World

11:00am November 25, 2018

by Furkan Latif Khan

In New Delhi, the air has a dusty, burnt taste, says NPR's Furkan Latif Khan. And sometimes the air is so bad she wears a face mask.

Infections with Clostridium difficile can crop up after a round of antibiotics.

Health & Safety

Dangerous Infection Tied To Hospitals Now Becoming Common Outside Them

7:01am November 25, 2018

by Clayton Dalton

Infections with Clostridium difficile can be difficult to treat and life-threatening. Once a problem seen mainly in health care facilities, the infections are now occurring often in the community.

Liliana Czegledi holds a photo of her daughter, Ioana, at her home in the village of Sînandrei in western Romania. Ioana was just shy of her 10th birthday when she died of complications from measles. She could not be vaccinated because she had a compromi

Health & Safety

The Story Behind The Worst Measles Outbreak In The European Union

4:59pm November 24, 2018

Europe is experiencing a record outbreak of measles, a disease that has been vaccine-preventable since 1963. And in the EU, Romania is ground zero.

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Dr. Ruth Levesque (right) hands Shaun McDougall his newborn son Brady at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, Mass. The birth of the second twin, Bryce, was much trickier than Brady's. Good communication between the health team and parents was crucial to saf

Twin's Difficult Birth Put A Project Designed To Reduce C-Sections To The Test

3:47pm November 24, 2018

by Martha Bebinger

A woman had twins in a hospital south of Boston last summer. For doctors aiming to reduce cesareans, the second baby's tricky arrival tested the limits of teamwork.

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The shooting at Mercy Hospital & Medical Center took the lives of three people. One of them was a physician at the hospital.

Health & Safety

Opinion: Remembering A Victim of the Mercy Hospital Shooting

7:53am November 24, 2018

by Scott Simon

A gunman shot and killed three people at Mercy Hospital & Medical Center in Chicago this past week. NPR's Scott Simon remembers and honors one of the victims, Tamara O'Neal.

A farmer picks coca leaves in a field in Colombia.

Health & Safety

Colombia Tries To Get Farmers Out Of The Cocaine Biz. How's That Going?

7:16am November 24, 2018

by John Otis

If farmers uproot coca plants, whose leaves are used to make cocaine, the government has promised money, seeds and technology to help raise everything from peppercorns to pigs.