Your Health

Few States Use Health Law Option For Low-Cost Plans

1:50pm February 02, 2016

by Michelle Andrews

New York and Minnesota are offering an inexpensive insurance alternative allowed under the federal health law that provides some low-income people with more affordable coverage.

When a baby is born by cesarean section, she misses out on Mom's microbes in the birth canal.

Health & Safety

Researchers Test Microbe Wipe To Promote Babies' Health After C-Sections

7:25pm February 01, 2016

by Rob Stein

A small study suggests that slathering newborns with their mothers' microbes after cesarean sections could help create healthy microbiomes. Reducing childhood illness later on is the goal.

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A Chipotle Mexican Grill employee prepares a burrito for a customer in Seattle. The CDC believes the two recent E. coli outbreaks at Chipotle restaurants are over.

E. Coli Outbreaks At Chipotle Restaurants 'Appear To Be Over,' CDC Says

5:47pm February 01, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

Two E. coli outbreaks infected at least 60 people in 14 states. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn't been able to determine the source of the infections.

Some doctors have been hesitant to recommend the HPV vaccine for boys and girls.

CDC Endorses A More Effective HPV Vaccine To Prevent Cancer

5:02pm February 01, 2016

by Tara Haelle

An HPV vaccine that protects against nine strains of the virus that causes cancer gets the nod from the CDC. So does a vaccine for a rare but often lethal form of meningitis.

Ben Lecomte has swum across the Atlantic Ocean, and now he aims to traverse the Pacific, which will take him five or six months.

Can Extreme Exercise Hurt Your Heart? Swim The Pacific To Find Out

4:41pm February 01, 2016

by Lauren Silverman

Ben Lecomte wants to be the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean — a 5,500-mile journey. Doctors will monitor his heart remotely to see how intensive exercise affects this vital muscle.

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Diane McMenamin, 14, gets vaccinated against rubella at a high school in Willingboro, N.J., in 1976.

Before Zika Virus, Rubella Was A Pregnant Woman's Nightmare

5:23am January 30, 2016

by Wendy Wolfson

Our experience with the rubella virus, which can cause miscarriages or serious birth defects if a woman gets infected while pregnant, may help scientists figure out how to combat Zika virus.

C4 proteins (green) are seen at the synapses in a culture of human neurons. (Heather de Rivera/McCarroll Lab/Harvard via AP)

Variations In A Gene Provide Clues About Schizophrenia

5:46pm January 29, 2016

by Katherine Harmon Courage

Scientists studied the genomes of more than 64,000 people and found that those with the debilitating psychiatric disease were much more likely to possess mutations of a particular gene.

How Can We Prepare For A Graceful Death?

10:01am January 29, 2016

by NPR/TED Staff

At the end of our lives, what do we most wish for? BJ Miller is a palliative care physician who thinks about how to create a dignified, graceful end of life for his patients.

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Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, seen in a lab at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the Sao Paulo University in Brazil, can carry the Zika virus.

U.S. Health Agencies Intensify Fight Against Zika Virus

7:58pm January 28, 2016

by Rob Stein

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health say they're working to combat Zika. Their plans include developing lab tests and a vaccine.

Gilead Sciences' new drug Sovaldi effectively cures hepatitis C, but the price is straining state budgets.

California Pays Insurers Millions More For Hepatitis C Drugs

3:10pm January 28, 2016

by Pauline Bartolone

Private insurers billed California $387.5 million to treat just 3,624 patients with new medications for hepatitis C. The people are covered by the state's Medicaid program.