Children in South Asia and Africa continue to face the threat of infection from meningitis. Despite progress in vaccines, there are still poor health infrastructures in key areas and inadequate access to medical services. The World Health Organization (WHO) says promoting vaccination programs faces challenges, with outbreaks of several forms …

The world’s last male white northern rhino has died in Kenya. Conservationists say his death underscores the urgent need to end illegal trade in rhino horn. The northern white rhino once roamed Africa in the hundreds, some say even in the thousands.   The population is now down to two, …

Some people have abnormally fast heartbeats, sometimes as fast as 400 beats per minute. A heartbeat this fast can be life-threatening. The solution is an implantable defibrillator. VOA’s Carol Pearson has the stories of two people whose lives have been saved by devices implanted directly into their heart. …

Venezuela’s health system is sinking into further disarray, a survey led by the opposition-dominated Congress showed on Monday, with most hospitals plagued by water outages, unable to feed patients and lacking even basic devices like catheters. In the midst of a crushing economic crisis that has caused medicine shortages and …

Our first known interstellar visitor likely came from a two-star system.   That’s the latest from astronomers who were amazed by the mysterious cigar-shaped object, detected as it passed through our inner solar system last fall.   The University of Toronto’s Alan Jackson reported Monday that the asteroid — the …

Worried about catching a cold or the flu on an airplane? Get a window seat, and don’t leave it until the flight is over. That’s what some experts have been saying for years, and it’s perhaps the best advice coming out of a new attempt to determine the risks of …

A new report by the World Bank shows that the effects of climate change could force 140 million people to move within their countries by 2050. The report looked at three developing regions of the world — sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America — and found that unless urgent action is taken, …

India is the most vulnerable country to climate change, followed by Pakistan, the Philippines and Bangladesh, a ranking by HSBC showed on Monday. The bank assessed 67 developed, emerging and frontier markets on vulnerability to the physical impacts of climate change, sensitivity to extreme weather events, exposure to energy transition …

U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his long-awaited plan to combat the nation’s opioid addiction crisis on Monday.   In a speech at an event in Manchester, N.H., Trump vowed to help create “a generation of drug-free children” saying, “together, we will end the scourge of drug addiction in America once …

What if filling a prescription was as easy as withdrawing money from an ATM? A South African company has set out to make that a reality. Meet the Pharmacy Dispensing Unit. …

Population growth, changing consumption patterns and development are taking their toll on the world’s water supplies, and governments need to rely more on ‘green’ water management to ensure a healthy planet and meet the needs of the fast-growing global population.  That’s one of the messages in a new study by …

Two vaccination workers were killed and two were seriously wounded, officials said  Militants ambushed a polio vaccination team in a remote tribal region in Pakistan, killing two of the medical workers and seriously wounding another two, officials said Sunday. The gunmen also attacked tribal police and the paramilitary Frontier Corps …

Visiting the doctor to get your blood pressure checked might be stressful and time consuming, but what if you could get a check-up at your regular barbershop instead? That’s the idea behind a recent study in Los Angeles, where pharmacists are working with 52 barbershops to try to help African-American …

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports a major breakthrough in efforts to contain South Africa’s longest and largest recorded listeria outbreak. The current outbreak of listeriosis in South Africa began more than one year ago in January 2017. As of March 12, the WHO has recorded 978 lab-confirmed cases of …

A prehistoric tooth from one of the largest sharks ever known has gone missing from a secret location in a remote World Heritage area in Western Australia.  Police are investigating the theft of the rare Megalodon tooth discovered in the Cape Range National Park. The location of the rare tooth …

Taking a data-driven approach to disaster preparedness can help cities at risk bounce back after earthquakes. Faith Lapidus explains. …

Capturing snowflakes isn’t as easy as sticking out your tongue. At least not when you’re trying to capture them for scientific study, which involves isolating the tiniest of crystals on a metal card printed with grid lines and quickly placing them under a microscope to be photographed. “They are very …

Cigarette smoking kills nearly a half-million Americans every year and costs the U.S. economy $300 billion in health care and lost productivity, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To help smokers kick the deadly habit and stop kids from starting, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration …

With the number of endangered Puget Sound orcas at a 30-year low, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday signed an executive order directing state agencies to take immediate and longer-term steps to protect the struggling whales. The fish-eating mammals, also known as killer whales, that spend time in Puget Sound …

A large-scale United Nations program to halt deforestation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to the world’s second-largest rainforest, is harming local communities and failing to protect forests, land rights researchers said on Wednesday. The U.S.-based group Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) called on the World Bank to withhold …

Eastern China’s Jiangsu province will step up its war on pollution and focus on “high-quality development” following a spike in smog early this year, the China Daily reported, citing the provincial governor. The province of Jiangsu is a major part of the Yangtze river delta manufacturing hub. Concentrations of breathable …

Federal officials have killed 10 wolves in northern Idaho at the request of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to boost elk numbers, and state officials say more might be killed this winter. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services said Wednesday that workers used a helicopter in the …

Physicist Stephen Hawking died March 14, 2018, at his home in Cambridge, England. He was one of the most respected and best-known scientists in modern history. Arash Arabasadi reports. …

Stephen Hawking’s computer-generated voice was known to millions of people around the world, a robotic drawl that somehow enhanced the profound impact of the cosmological secrets he revealed. The technology behind his means of communication was upgraded through the years, offering him the chance to sound less like a machine, but he insisted on sticking …

It was an ordinary surgery to remove a tumor – until doctors turned off the lights and the patient’s chest started to glow. A spot over his heart shined purplish pink. Another shimmered in a lung.  They were hidden cancers revealed by fluorescent dye, an advance that soon may transform …