In the face of a diphtheria outbreak in parts of Indonesia, authorities have embarked on an immunization drive to slow the advance of the dangerous respiratory disease. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. Faith Lapidus narrates. …

NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless, the first person to fly freely and untethered in space, has died. He was 80. He was famously photographed in 1984 flying with a hefty spacewalker’s jetpack, alone in the cosmic blackness above a blue Earth. He traveled more than 300 feet away from the space …

One big problem confronts Africa as it tries to predict how its weather patterns will shift in the face of climate change: Almost all the climate models for the continent were created in the United States or Europe. Now South African climate researcher Francois Engelbrecht has changed that by developing …

A nutritional survey of Rohingya refugee children at a camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, found high rates of malnutrition and other debilitating, life-threatening health problems. UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac calls the survey findings alarming, saying they indicate thousands of Rohingya refugee children are facing a public health crisis. “Up to …

Scott Judd trained his camera lens on the white dot in the distance. As he moved up the Lake Michigan shoreline, the speck on a breakwater came into view and took his breath away: it was a snowy owl, thousands of miles from its Arctic home. “It was an amazing …

In a remarkably strong show of consumer demand, nearly 9 million people signed up for “Obamacare” next year, as government numbers out Thursday proved predictions of its collapse wrong yet again.   The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said more than 8.8 million people have signed up in the …

While progress has been made against malaria, the mosquito-borne disease kills more than 420,000 people each year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Now, drug-resistant malaria strains in Southeast Asia could threaten the global fight against the disease. VOA’s Faith Lapidus reports. …

U.S. deaths from drug overdoses skyrocketed 21 percent last year, and for the second straight year dragged down how long Americans are expected to live. The government figures released Thursday put drug deaths at 63,600, up from about 52,000 in 2015. For the first time, the powerful painkiller fentanyl and …

A recent study by the Global Nutrition Report 2017 shows that eating beans bred to contain more iron boosts memory and attention in college-going women in Rwanda. The specially biofortified beans could prove significant in a continent where iron deficiency (ID) affects both adults and children, with dire consequences. Lenny …

Scientists warn a campaign to eradicate polio in central Africa is falling short because of upheaval in the Lake Chad Basin area, where the Boko Haram militant group remains active.  On the positive side, on country – Gabon – has been declared polio-free. Professor Rose Leke, who heads the Africa …

A survey by the U.N. refugee agency reveals heightened worries by the Rohingya refugee population in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh over their health and safety. It has been nearly four months since the mass exodus of Rohingya refugees began from Myanmar into Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. More than 645,000 Rohingya who escaped …

The World Meteorological Organization reports 2017 is on track to be among the three hottest years on record, just behind the two preceding years. While 2017 may only emerge as the third warmest year on record, scientists predict it will beat out the competition for warmest year without a warming …

The Environmental Protection Agency says an internal task force appointed to revamp how the nation’s most polluted sites are cleaned up generated no record of its deliberations. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in May announced the creation of a Superfund Task Force that he said would reprioritize and streamline procedures for …

In the universe, particularly in our galaxy, there are a great number of multiple-stellar systems where two or more stars rotate around each other. In many of these systems, the stars collide – a phenomenon that has been familiar to astronomers for a long time. But scientists say a collision …

“Music hath charms,” the saying goes, and it does have power, to make us happy, sad, or even ignite social change. But it also has healing powers, and researchers want to know how that works. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

A new study has dashed hopes that people may be able to protect themselves from dementia through medicine, diet or exercise. “To put it simply, all evidence indicates that there is no magic bullet,” Dr. Eric Larson wrote in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study outlined in the medical …

Like a friendly Pied Piper, the violinist keeps up a toe-tapping beat as dancers weave through busy hospital hallways and into the chemotherapy unit, patients looking up in surprised delight. Upstairs, a cellist plays an Irish folk tune for a patient in intensive care. Music increasingly is becoming a part …

U.S. health officials on Tuesday approved the nation’s first gene therapy for an inherited, rare form of blindness, marking another major advance for the emerging field of genetic medicine. The approval for pharmaceutical company Spark Therapeutics offers a life-changing intervention for a small group of patients with a vision-destroying genetic mutation …

Each time teenager Freddy Sei hears the rumble of thunder, sees rains pound the earth in his small coastal village or watches strong winds whip palm trees, he is gripped with fear. The 15-year-old lives in Vanuatu, a Pacific island nation that two years ago was ravaged by monster cyclone …

An old technology is making a comeback with some elements of the U.S. military. Freeze dried plasma was used routinely in World War 2 but discontinued until a month ago, when it was reintroduced into the field. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday issued a notice that it wants public input for a possible replacement of Obama-era regulations on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants that the agency is repealing. The agency’s advance notice kicks off a 60-day comment period on “specific topics for the Agency …

The United Nations is calling on all parties in the Afghan conflict to facilitate health workers in conducting Monday’s urgent polio vaccination campaign in a volatile southern district with the highest number of polio virus cases of any district in the world. U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Toby Lanzer warned Sunday the …

Controversy is swirling around the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World.  This new non-profit organization has come under intense criticism from health agencies and anti-tobacco campaigners who accuse it of acting as a smoke-screen for Big Tobacco, a charge vigorously denied by the foundation’s president.   Derek Yach, who created and …

A trio of U.S. and Japanese astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut blasted off from Kazakhstan on Sunday for a two-day trip to the International Space Station, a NASA TV broadcast showed. Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and flight engineers Norishige Kanai of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Scott Tingle of …

Asbestos is a fibrous mineral that is incredibly useful, but it also causes lung cancer after long-term exposure. Fifty-five countries around the world have banned the use of asbestos, but not the United States, China, Russia or India. Indonesia has not banned asbestos either, but a recent court case suggests …