Health & Safety

Health & Safety

Vaccine Would Protect People From Ebola, 'Lancet' Reports

7:29am December 23, 2016

Scientists say the vaccine would prevent outbreaks on the scale of 2013's in West Africa. Steve Inskeep talks to Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

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A screenshot from sellusdiabeticteststrips.com.

Health & Safety

The Murky World Of Secondhand Diabetic Test Strips

7:28am December 23, 2016

by Rhaina Cohen

Test strips for diabetes can be pricey. Many diabetics are turning to the gray market to buy this necessary medical supply on the cheap. It's not exactly illegal, but it invites risk and uncertainty.

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When A School's Online Eavesdropping Can Prevent A Suicide

4:26am December 23, 2016

by Anya Kamenetz

Administrators now have the power to track students' browsing on school-issued laptops, even at home. That can help spot a student in distress. But the implications are complicated.

Clockwise from upper left: Dr. Forster Amponsah; a Malick Sidbe photo taken in Mali; a global garden of radio; Chewa the TB-sniffing rat; another Sidbe photo; Olympic medalist Fu Yuanhui of China; the New Mexico cave where a superhero bacterium lived; pov

Editors' Choice: 9 Global Feelgood Stories From 2016

10:34pm December 22, 2016

by NPR Staff

In a year marked by turmoil and tragedy, the Goats and Soda team has picked some of the stories that inspired us, gave us hope, made us grin.

Antibiotic- and growth-hormone-free cattle gather at a farm in Yamhill, Ore. Despite farmers pledging to reduce or stop antibiotics use, a new report finds that sales of antibiotics for use on farms are going up.

Despite Pledges To Cut Back, Farms Are Still Using Antibiotics

6:48pm December 22, 2016

by Dan Charles

Many meat producers say they are reducing their use of antibiotics. Yet the latest government statistics show that sales of these drugs for farm use continue to grow.

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles has been penalized in all three years since the creation of a Medicare program to reduce patient-safety issues in hospitals.

Medicare Penalizes Hospitals In Crackdown On Antibiotic-Resistant Infections

12:24pm December 22, 2016

by Jordan Rau

For the first time, Medicare penalties against hospitals with too many avoidable patient safety complications include fines tied to the prevalence of two types of bacteria resistant to drugs.

Cyclosporine is one of the drugs that organ transplant patients take so the body won't reject the organ.

Medicare Pays For A Kidney Transplant, But Not The Drugs To Keep It Viable

11:13am December 22, 2016

by Richard Harris

The federal government pays for kidney transplants. But the program only pays for essential anti-rejection drugs for three years. Many people can't afford them and can end up losing the kidney.

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Health & Safety

Drug Firms Make Millions By Sending Opioid Pills To W.Va., Report Says

6:21am December 22, 2016

Rachel Martin talks to Eric Eyre of the Charleston Gazette-Mail about revelations that drug wholesalers shipped hundreds of millions of opioid pills to West Virginia pharmacies over a six-year period.

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The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health sent a mobile testing unit to a fire station in Wharton, W.Va., in 2012 to screen coal miners for black lung disease.

Lawmakers Seek Better Count Of Advanced Black Lung Disease Cases

8:44pm December 21, 2016

by Howard Berkes

In response to an NPR investigation that shows 10 times the number of cases as currently reported, members of Congress are asking three federal agencies to work together to obtain an accurate count.

Ear infections are common in young children, and often treated with antibiotics.

For Young Kids' Ear Infections, Longer Antibiotic Treatment Works Better

8:29pm December 21, 2016

by Katherine Hobson

Cutting by half the time that children are given antibiotics for ear infections didn't do as good a job, a study finds. And it didn't reduce antibiotic resistance, which was a key goal.