Donald G. McNeil Jr. | The Seattle Times

August 23, 2018 at 2:28 pm

Russian trolls used vaccine debate to sow discord, study finds

“Don’t get #vaccines. Illuminati are behind it” “Do you still treat your kids with leaves? No? And why don’t you #vaccinate them? It’s medicine!” With...

Nation & World

July 27, 2018 at 11:00 pm

Now in sight: Success against an infection that blinds

Trachoma, a bacterial infection, results in swollen and inverted eyelids. With every blink, eyelashes rake over corneas, ultimately causing blindness.

Nation & World

June 22, 2018 at 4:51 pm

The man who (almost) wiped out the Guinea worms

Dr. Ernesto Ruiz-Tiben, the chief strategist in the war against the Guinea worm run by the Carter Center, the global health philanthropy established in Atlanta...

Nation & World

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