Health
Plastic cups spoil India’s tea time
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The BBC’s Judy Swallow reports from Kolkata, India, where tea is served by street vendors in disposable clay cups. It turns out those cups are more environmentally friendly than the plastic ones you get from vendors elsewhere in India. Download MP3
Science Forum: Seth Mnookin’s ‘The Panic Virus’
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Anchor Marco Werman speaks with writer Seth Mnookin about his new book, ‘The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science and Fear.’ Mnookin explores why an anti-vaccination campaign has been so powerful, even though it was based on fraudulent science. Download MP3Mnookin will also take audience questions in our latest online Science Forum discussion.
Join the discussion here
Drug use growing in China
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Authorities in Hong Kong today announced the seizure of a huge shipment of cocaine from South America. Anchor Marco Werman gets details from the BBC’s Annemarie Evans and discusses the emerging drug culture in China. Download MP3
Dealing with Haiti’s cholera victims
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The cholera outbreak in Haiti has spread easily because of the poor sanitation following last year’s devastating earthquake. More than 3,200 people have died of disease since October. The World’s Jeb Sharp spent some time this week with a man who has the job of collecting the bodies of cholera victims. Download MP3Jeb’s pictures from Haiti
US Army studies malaria vaccine
Malaria is a disease of the developing world, but some Americans are being infected with malaria intentionally to help medical research. Reporter Eric Niiler profiles volunteers in a US Army study of an experimental malaria vaccine.
Vaccinating for cholera in Haiti
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The World Health Organization will start vaccinating Haitians against cholera in April. Dr. Peter Hotez is an expert in vaccine development at George Washington University and speaks to anchor Katy Clark. Download MP3
Global food prices at ‘record high’
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Global food prices rose to a new high in December, according to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation. Its food price index went above the previous record of 2008 that saw prices spark riots in several countries. We hear from three countries what that means for people on the ground. Download MP3
Neanderthal diet study
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A new study shows for the first time that Neanderthals were eating cooked grains and cereals. Also, the plant portion of Neanderthal diet is not too different from modern human diet. Anchor Katy Clark learns more from study author, Dolores Piperno. Download MP3
Researchers analyze pollution effect on Lebanon
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Beirut’s streets are filled with aging cars spewing clouds of toxic fumes in the air. Ben Gilbert reports that researchers hope to find out exactly how much damage those exhaust fumes are doing to Lebanese health. Download MP3
Responses to Rationing Health series forum
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Our series last week about health care rationing has generated a lively online discussion. Listeners are sharing their thoughts with journalist Sheri Fink and Harvard ethicist Dan Wikler. Check out what others have written in, and bring your own stories and thoughts to the conversation. Sheri Fink and Dan Wikler are taking your questions until December 31st.Download MP3
Remembering a pioneer in the fight against river blindness
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French entomologist Rene Le Berre passed away earlier this month. He led efforts to eradicate the disease known as river blindness from the African continent. Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Dr. Joel Breman, a friend of Le Berre and a tropical disease expert at the National Institutes of Health. Download MP3
Rationing Health in disasters
Medical rationing sometimes seems inevitable during disasters. Major earthquakes, floods, and pandemics can leave health workers scrambling to care for all the patients who need attention and can force some patients to go without. But even in such dire circumstances, can rationing be avoided? Sheri Fink found a doctor in India with a hopeful tale.
Part 4: India: Rationing in disasters
Discuss medical rationing in the US
For some perspective on medical rationing in the US, we invited Dan Wikler. He’s an ethics professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and former staff ethicist for the World Health Organization. You can join the conversation with Dan Wikler and Sheri Fink at theworld.org/rationinghealth
The discussion is live through next week.
Rationing Health Care in Zambia
The rationing of health care is not always obvious or explicit. Implicit factors may determine who receives care and who does not.One such factor may have imposed a form of unintentional rationing on AIDS care in the Southern African nation of Zambia, as David Baron reports.
Rationing Health Care in Britain
Some argue that the goal of medical rationing should be to focus resources where they will offer the greatest health benefit to the greatest number of people.That is the aim of the UK’s rationing plan but Britain’s plan is now under fire. Patrick Cox has part 2 of our series. (Photo: Mark Wessels)
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