Global Health

Fans spray air mixed with water vapor to cool down pedestrians on a Baghdad street on June 30, 2021, during a heat wave.

Why Baghdad will be one of the cities hardest hit by global warming

8:42am March 10, 2022

by Jason Beaubien

Iraq's capital city is already seeing record heat — up to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. A report predicts more 120-plus degree days to come. And the "urban heat island" effect will make things even worse.

Two white-tailed deer forage in Pennsylvania's Wyomissing Parklands. At the end of 2021, researchers swabbed the noses of 93 dead deer from across the state. Nearly 20% tested positive for the coronavirus.

Researcher finds 'stunning' rate of COVID among deer. Here's what it means for humans

8:18pm March 09, 2022

by Ari Daniel

Studies on white-tailed deer in Pennsylvania and Ontario offer evidence that the mammals are a reservoir for the coronavirus. What are the implications for the course of SARS-CoV-2?

Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the first woman to lead the the World Health Organization's regional Africa office, sits in her office in Brazzaville, Congo on Feb. 8, 2022.

WHO Africa's 1st woman leader helps continent fight COVID

3:39am March 09, 2022

by The Associated Press

Dr. Matshidiso Moeti has become one of the world's most compelling voices urging better consideration of Africa's people — especially women.

A health worker gives out rapid COVID-19 antigen self-test kits at the Waipareira Trust drive-in COVID-19 testing station in Auckland, New Zealand, on Tuesday.

New Zealand changes its tack on surging COVID-19 cases

1:38am March 08, 2022

by The Associated Press

Experts say New Zealand's actions have likely saved thousands of lives by allowing the nation to mostly avoid earlier, more deadly variants and buying time to get people vaccinated.

Nurses perform timed breathing exercises on a COVID-19 patient on a ventilator in the COVID-19 intensive care unit at the la Timone hospital in Marseille, southern France on Dec. 31, 2021.

Death toll surpasses 6 million for the pandemic now in its 3rd year

5:49am March 07, 2022

by The Associated Press

Health care experts say that confirmed deaths represent a fraction of the true number of deaths due to COVID because of limited testing.

A driver sits in the cab of a combine harvester during the summer harvest in a field of wheat in Varva, Ukraine. Ukraine accounts for more than 10% of the global wheat market. Russia's war threatens to disrupt the spring planting season.

Russia's war on Ukraine is dire for world hunger. But there are solutions

9:59am March 06, 2022

by Nurith Aizenman

Both countries are huge suppliers of grains and other essential foods. And with widespread hunger and high food prices already, the war couldn't have come at a worse time.

Queue Listen Now

Young women wait to get vaccinated by Namra, a 21-year-old health worker who's part of a national door-to-door vaccination effort in the informal Hindubasti settlement in Karachi.

Health & Safety

Pakistan has a big idea: Send 13,000 teams led by women to vaccinate the hesitant

8:39am March 05, 2022

The vaccinators are going door-to-door in what the government is calling an unprecedented effort, toting coolers with a mix of COVID vaccine types.

Journalists report from Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 2. Media coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been massive.

Not every war gets the same coverage as Russia's invasion — and that has consequences

6:34pm March 04, 2022

by Malaka Gharib

Ongoing wars in, say, Yemen or Ethiopia get minimal attention compared with the media focus on the fighting in Ukraine. And there are ramifications on the humanitarian front.

Security guards stand in front of the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 11, 2020, after the market had been closed following an outbreak of COVID-19 there. Two new studies document samples of SARS-CoV-2 from stalls where live animal

Striking new evidence points to seafood market in Wuhan as pandemic origin point

10:14pm March 03, 2022

by Michaeleen Doucleff

Two studies point to a link between the animals at the seafood market and the spread of SARS-CoV-2 — foreshadowed by photos from 2014 of raccoon dogs and birds. A top virus sleuth gives the details.

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A new report from UNICEF and the World Health Organization documents what it calls "aggressive" and "misleading" marketing of infant formula. There's special concern about efforts in low-resource countries

Health & Safety

Infant formula promoted in 'aggressive' and 'misleading' ways, says new global report

12:57pm March 01, 2022

by Fran Kritz

UNICEF and the World Health Organization issued the paper. It shows "that formula milk marketing remains unacceptably pervasive, misleading and aggressive," says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of WHO.