Donald G. McNeil Jr. | The Seattle Times

March 30, 2018 at 4:37 pm

In poor countries, anti-smoking activists face threats and violence

They were first quietly warned that they were upsetting cigarette companies, tobacco farmers or government officials connected to the industry. If the activists persisted, threats...

Nation & World

Dr. Philip Cheng, who was denied a lifetime disability policy because he was taking a cocktail of two anti-HIV drugs, a practice called PrEP (short for pre-exposure prophylaxis) that is extremely effective at preventing infection, at his home in Boston, Jan. 9, 2018. HIV specialists say the denials endanger menÕs lives by encouraging them to drop PrEP if they need life, disability or long-term-care insurance. (Kayana Szymczak/The New York Times)

February 14, 2018 at 5:50 pm

Many taking anti-HIV drug can’t get life insurance

There are nearly 800 life insurers in this country, according to the American Council of Life Insurers. There are no national figures on how many...

Nation & World

December 29, 2017 at 3:53 pm

‘Opiophobia’ has left Africa in agony

Opioid abuse in the Western world is having a chilling effect on developing nations, who need the medication to do its job: relieve pain. But...

Nation & World

October 13, 2017 at 4:00 pm

Curiosity, and cash, fight a fever

What drives one to be a test subject? One hundred residents of Oxford, England, volunteered to test a new typhoid vaccine developed by a local...

Nation & World

August 11, 2017 at 4:00 pm

Rapid malaria tests work, but with unexpected drawbacks

The tests have improved diagnostics, but a high number of patients are still walking out with the wrong drugs for treatment, risking the emergence of...

Nation & World

February 6, 2017 at 7:44 pm

Trump’s travel ban, aimed at terrorists, blocks foreign-born doctors

Foreign-born physicians have become crucial to the delivery of medical care in the United States. They work in small towns where there are no other...

Nation & World

January 25, 2017 at 6:22 pm

WHO warns of worrisome bird flu in China

Several strains of avian flu are spreading in Europe and Asia this winter, but the most worrisome at present is an H7N9 strain that has...

Nation & World

FILE – In this May 5, 2014 file photo, Microsoft co-founder and Berkshire Hathaway board member Bill Gates speaks during an interview with Liz Claman on the Fox Business Network in Omaha, Neb. Gates says he wants to end malaria in his lifetime and will raise his donations toward that goal by 30 percent, to more than $200 million per year. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

January 18, 2017 at 8:56 pm

Donors, drugmakers offer $500 million to control global epidemics

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is among the first, and largest, donors to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which will develop and stockpile...

Nation & World

September 5, 2016 at 1:09 pm

Doctors on lookout for Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in Spain

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever is fatal in about 30 percent of cases, according to the World Health Organization. It is normally found in Africa, the Middle...

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Standing water, breeding grounds for mosquitos carrying Zika virus, at a cemetery in Humacao, Puerto Rico, July 18, 2016. The Zika epidemic that has spread from Brazil to the rest of Latin America is now raging in Puerto Rico â€” and the islandâ€™s response is in chaos. (Angel Franco/The New York Times)

July 30, 2016 at 6:55 pm

As Zika rages in Puerto Rico, action falters

The war against the Aedes aegypti mosquito that carries the virus is sputtering out in failure in Puerto Rico, even as thousands of residents become...

Nation & World