health care

Health & Safety

Venezuela's Collapse Puts Strain On Latin American Health Care

7:30am February 18, 2019

by Jason Beaubien

The collapse of the health care system in Venezuela is having ramifications throughout Latin America. Disease outbreaks across the continent are being linked back to Venezuela.

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HIV-positive patients and their families protest hospitals' lack of medicines and supplies in Caracas, Venezuela, in April 2018. Some patients are fleeing to neighboring countries like Peru in search of lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs.

Venezuela's Health Crisis Spills Over To Neighboring Countries

4:07pm February 15, 2019

by Jason Beaubien

Refugees are fleeing to try and get health care. And disease outbreaks across Latin America are being linked back to Venezuela.

Dramatic decreases in deaths from lung cancer among African-Americans were particularly notable, according to the American Cancer Society.

Racial Disparities In Cancer Incidence And Survival Rates Are Narrowing

8:34pm February 14, 2019

by Patti Neighmond

African-Americans still have the highest death rate and the lowest survival rate of any U.S. racial or ethnic group for most cancers. But the "cancer gap" between blacks and whites is shrinking.

Why Men In Mississippi Are Still Dying Of AIDS, Despite Existing Treatments

5:36pm February 14, 2019

by Ari Shapiro

President Trump has pledged to eliminate HIV in America by 2030. But in the South, rates of HIV/AIDS among black gay and bisexual men remain stubbornly high.

Hesitancy about vaccination in a community has a lot to do with acculturation to its norms.

Health & Safety

Medical Anthropologist Explores 'Vaccine Hesitancy'

8:21pm February 13, 2019

by Mara Gordon

Families learn to be skeptical about vaccines in communities where incomplete vaccination is the norm. A researcher into the phenomenon found that people are ready to listen, if they're heard, too.

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks at a campaign rally at the University of Iowa on Sunday.

Politics & Government

Trump's 'Socialism' Attack On Democrats Has Its Roots In Cold War Fear

12:14pm February 12, 2019

President Trump is starting to give signs of how he will run for re-election, attempting to invert the attack on him as an extremist by painting Democrats as "radical" and socialist.

A man who goes by the name Dave Carvagio holds a packaged syringe in Pickering Square in Bangor, Maine. The Bangor chapter of the Church of Safe Injection sets up a table in the square and offers free naloxone, needles and other drug-using supplies.

'Church Of Safe Injection' Offers Needles, Naloxone To Prevent Opioid Overdoses

7:27am February 12, 2019

by Deborah Becker

The group says it has 18 chapters in eight states, all of them funded by private, anonymous donations. Members distribute free and clean drug-use supplies even at the risk of being arrested.

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Health & Safety

Doctor Weighs In On Supreme Court's Decision To Block Louisiana Abortion Law

5:16pm February 10, 2019

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Dr. Willie Parker about the recent Supreme Court decision regarding abortion access in Louisiana.

AIDS activist group ACT UP organized numerous protests on Wall Street in the 1980s. The group's tactics helped speed the process of finding an effective treatment for AIDS.

Health & Safety

How To Demand A Medical Breakthrough: Lessons From The AIDS Fight

8:39am February 09, 2019

by Nurith Aizenman

When the AIDS crisis started in the 1980s, the official response was tepid. Then activists channeled their anger into into one of the most effective protest movements in recent history.

An Overview Of State Abortion Laws

8:21am February 09, 2019

Scott Simon talks to Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for Kaiser Health News, about new abortion laws in state legislatures across the country.