As the World Health Organization marks World Malaria Day, April 25, Malawi has launched the pilot phase of Africa’s first ever malaria vaccine. The WHO chose Malawi, alongside Ghana and Kenya, because of the high numbers of malaria cases and treatment facilities. The pilot phase aims to vaccinate 360,000 children …

U.S. President Donald Trump touted progress in the fight against opioid abuse on Wednesday and promised to hold drugmakers accountable for their part in the crisis, a day after his administration brought its first related criminal charges against a major drug distributor and company executives. America’s opioid epidemic, especially damaging …

The World Health Organization has issued its first-ever guidance for how much screen time children under 5 should get: not very much, and none at all for those under 1. The U.N. health agency said Wednesday that kids under 5 should not spend more than one hour watching screens every …

Despondent, Akon Mathiong points to two small mounds of dirt where she buried her grandsons, 4 and 5 years old, last month. They died after contracting measles in one of the worst-hit areas of South Sudan’s latest outbreak. “Every time I see the graves I feel like crying,” Mathiong said. …

NASA’s robotic probe InSight has detected and measured what scientists believe to be a “marsquake,” marking the first time a likely seismological tremor has been recorded on another planet, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California reported on Tuesday. The breakthrough came nearly five months after InSight, the first spacecraft designed …

Americans are becoming increasingly sedentary, spending almost a third of their waking hours sitting down, and computer use is partly to blame, a new study found.   Over almost a decade, average daily sitting time increased by roughly an hour, to about eight hours for U.S. teens and almost 6 …

The World Health Organization says Malawi has become the first country to begin immunizing children against malaria, using the only licensed vaccine to protect against the mosquito-spread disease. Although the vaccine only protects about one-third of children who are immunized, those who get the shots are likely to have less …

Communist Vietnam is moving to privatize some parts of its health care system, raising questions about the state’s duty to guarantee care for all as a basic right, and about its budget to do so.  A publicly funded medical school in Ho Chi Minh City said this month it is …

An animal orphanage in Zimbabwe is one of the organizations leading efforts to ensure poaching and development do not wipe out the wildlife of the southern African nation.  About half an hour drive southeast of Bulawayo is a special orphanage caring for abandoned and injured animals. The Chipangali Wildlife Orphanage …

The world’s recyclable plastic is being shipped to Asia where it is illegally dumped, buried or burned in the country with the lightest regulations, environmentalists warned on Tuesday calling for greater transparency in the global waste trade. A report by Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) and Greenpeace East Asia …

The United States recorded 71 new measles cases last week, a 13 percent increase as the country faces its second-worst outbreak of the disease in almost two decades, federal health officials said on Monday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had recorded 626 cases of the …

Today as we observe World Immunization Week, we’re going to focus on a disease that could be eradicated from the earth, just like smallpox was, and as just as international programs are doing with polio. But instead, as we hear from Carol Pearson, this deadly disease is making a comeback. …

Climate change protesters who have brought parts of London to a standstill said Sunday they were prepared to call a halt if the British government will discuss their demands. Some 963 arrests have been made and 42 people charged in connection with the ongoing Extinction Rebellion protests. On the seventh …

On April 22, more than 1 billion people in 192 countries are expected to take part in a global day of political and civic action for the Earth. People will march, plant trees, clean up their cities, parks, beaches and waterways, politicians will announce policies, and corporations will pledge to …

Trained to aid and accompany people with disabilities at all times, assistance dogs are much more than dedicated friends, they are the ears, the eyes and the moral support that is so needed, whether their companion has a physical disability or an emotional one, like PTSD. Anush Avetisyan learned more …

The U.N. children’s fund says at least 1.6 million children in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe need help right away to recover from the affects of Cyclone Idai, which battered their countries more than one month ago. Cyclone Idai, the deadliest storm to hit southern Africa in more than two decades, …

Three months ago, this flu season was shaping up to be short and mild in the U.S. But a surprising second viral wave has made it the longest in 10 years. This flu season has been officially going for 21 weeks, according to reports collected through last week and released …

One of the key components of empathy is what scientists call facial mimicry. It seems complicated, but is as simple as smiling when someone smiles at you, and that conveys a lot of information. Scientists have always thought that animals who do it, humans included, are a small group, but …

Some information in this report came from Reuters.  More than 1 million Afghan children, particularly in conflict-stricken regions of the country, were deprived of polio vaccinations in 2018 because of actions taken by Taliban and Islamic State militants, Afghanistan health officials tell VOA. “Overall, 1.2 million children were deprived of …

A Brooklyn judge on Thursday ruled against a group of parents who challenged New York City’s recently imposed mandatory measles vaccination order, rejecting their arguments that the city’s public health authority exceeded its authority. In a six-page decision rendered hours after a hearing on the matter, Judge Lawrence Knipel denied …

The Israeli start-up behind last week’s failed lunar landing says human error may have caused the spacecraft to crash into the moon. SpaceIL, the non-profit that undertook the botched lunar mission, said Thursday that its engineers collectively decided to restart the inertial measurement unit, a critical part of the spacecraft’s …

The British-led Nekton scientific mission on Thursday completed a seven-week expedition in the Indian Ocean aimed at documenting changes beneath the waves that could affect billions of people in the surrounding region over the coming decades. Little is known about the watery world below depths of 30 meters (yards), the …

Yale University scientists have succeeded in restoring basic cellular activity in pigs’ brains hours after their deaths in a finding that may one day lead to advances in treating human stroke and brain injuries, researchers reported Wednesday. The scientists emphasized that their work did not even come close to reawakening …

A German-led bid to step up efforts to combat sexual violence in conflicts has run into resistance at the U.N. Security Council, diplomats said Wednesday, just days before Nobel laureate Nadia Murad is to appear before the U.N. body to issue a call for justice. Germany is pushing for the …

A female astronaut is due to set a record for the longest spaceflight by a woman, the U.S. space agency said Wednesday, the same astronaut who was to have been in the first all-female spacewalk scrapped over lack of a right-sized spacesuit. Astronaut Christina Koch, who completed the space walk …