Jason Beaubien

Saving Newborns: 'Kangaroo Care' Could Go A Long Way

Jason Beaubien — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:08:00 +0000

In the developing world, a baby's first day of life is often the most perilous.

Roughly 3 million newborns die each year, the nonprofit Save the Children reported Tuesday.

A $5.5 Billion Road Map To Banish Polio Forever

Jason Beaubien — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 07:00:00 +0000

Polio isn't going easily into the dustbin of history.

The world needs to push it in, throw down the lid and then keep an eye out to make sure it doesn't escape.

That's the gist of a new plan released Thursday by the World Health Organization and other foundations at a vaccine meeting in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

It's a six-year, $5.5 billion program, and its goal is to wipe out polio for good.

The plan calls for attacking the their new method for mass-producing the key ingredient for the herbal drug artemisinin, the most powerful antimalarial on the market.

Dengue Fever Cases Have Been Seriously Underestimated

Jason Beaubien — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:38:00 +0000

A new paper in the journal Nature says scientists have been seriously underestimating the amount of dengue around the globe.

The study says there could be as many as 400 million dengue infections worldwide each year making it more prevalent than malaria. This is four times higher than the current dengue prevalence estimate of the World Health Organization.

One reason for the huge increase in estimated infections is that dengue has been spreading far and wide.

How To Get Rid Of Polio For Good? There's A $5 Billion Plan

Jason Beaubien — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 22:17:00 +0000

Polio is on the verge of being eliminated.

Power Shift Underway As Middle Class Expands In Developing World

Jason Beaubien — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 14:14:00 +0000

"The meek shall inherit the earth" — that seems to be the latest message from the United Nations Development Program.

Their 2013 Human Development Report chronicles the recent, rapid expansion of the middle class in the developing world.

What Happened To The Aid Meant To Rebuild Haiti?

Jason Beaubien — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 08:42:00 +0000

After a devastating earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, governments and foundations from around the world pledged more than $9 billion to help get the country back on its feet.

Only a fraction of the money ever made it. And Haiti's President Michel Martelly says the funds aren't "showing results."

Roughly 350,000 people still live in camps.

The Whole Community Gets A Health Boost From HIV Treatment

Jason Beaubien — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:25:00 +0000

Over the past few decades, one of the most perplexing questions in global health is how to stop HIV.

There have been campaigns involving condoms, abstinence and even the circumcision of all men younger than 46.

Will 'Made In Haiti' Factories Improve Life In Haiti?

Jason Beaubien — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 08:01:00 +0000

Three years after the devastating Port-au-Prince earthquake, one of the largest international relief projects in Haiti isn't anywhere near where the quake hit. It's an industrial park on the north coast halfway between Cap-Haitien and the border with the Dominican Republic.

Aid agencies are pouring millions of dollars into the project to encourage people to move out of the overcrowded capital and create jobs.

Attacks On Health Workers Put Fight To End Polio Under Fire

Jason Beaubien — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:47:00 +0000

The global effort to eradicate polio has reached a bizarre stage: More people have been gunned down recently over the disease than actually infected with it.

On Friday, nine polio vaccinators in northern Nigeria were shot dead and their clinics were torched. The BBC reported on Tuesday that two journalists have been arrested for inciting the attacks through a radio program.

Nigeria Moves To Clean Up Lead Pollution From Gold Mines

Jason Beaubien — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:34:00 +0000

Finally, the Nigerian government is fulfilling its promise to help thousands of kids, who have been exposed to toxic levels of lead.

After months of delay and red tape, the government has released $4 million to clean up lead in soil near illegal gold mines in northern Nigeria.

"We had a glass of champagne after the announcement," says

How The U.S. Stopped Malaria, One Cartoon At A Time

Jason Beaubien — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 21:35:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1TJg-DT8go

Fake Malaria Drugs Fuel Rise Of Drug-Resistant Disease

Jason Beaubien — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 08:48:00 +0000

Counterfeit drugs are a growing scourge around the world. They're generating millions of dollars in revenue for organized crime and fueling the rise of drug-resistant parasites.

Anti-malarials are among the most popular drugs to fake. But these faux pharmaceuticals are particularly dangerous because malaria can kill a person in a matter of days.

"Someone comes with malaria," says Stephane Proux, a researcher at the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit in Thailand, setting up a scenario.

A View From The Ground: Thailand Confronts Drug-Resistant Malaria

Jason Beaubien — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:47:00 +0000

Global efforts to combat malaria are under threat from new strains of drug-resistant malaria, which are cropping up in Southeast Asia.

Over the last decade, the number of malaria deaths around the world has dropped sharply, from just over 1 million in 2000 to roughly 600,000 last year.

Much of that progress is due to the widespread use of drugs containing artemisinin.

Nigeria Pressured To Clean Up Lead-Contaminated Villages

Jason Beaubien — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:57:00 +0000

The Nigerian government has been slow to fulfill a promise it made last spring. And, its sluggishness is putting kids at risk for lead poisoning, the advocacy group Humans Rights Watch says.

Last May, the Nigerian government pledged roughly $5 million to clean up lead contamination around illegal gold mines in northwest Nigeria.

A Polio Outbreak In Pakistan Reveals Gaps In Vaccination

Jason Beaubien — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:59:00 +0000

Pakistan has made a lot of progress this year in wiping out polio.

Stakes Rise In Malaria Battle As Cracks Appear In Drug's Armor

Jason Beaubien — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 08:18:00 +0000

Malaria remains a huge problem in much of the world, but over the past decade the number of people getting sick and dying from the disease has gone down dramatically.

Health workers attribute much of this progress to the widespread use of artemisinin-based drugs.

Drug-Resistant Malaria On The Rise In Southeast Asia

Jason Beaubien — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:23:00 +0000

For malaria in Southeast Asia, there's good news and bad news right now. Overall, the number of cases is down, but there's a growing problem of drug resistance in the cases that do crop up.

Researchers worry that superstrains of the parasite — strains immune to the most common medications — could wipe out the recent progress against malaria.

Even more worrisome is the prospect that that drug resistance could spread to India and eventually to Africa.

At Polio's Epicenter, Vaccinators Battle Chaos And Indifference

Jason Beaubien — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:16:00 +0000

Polio was eliminated from the Western Hemisphere in the early 1990s. It was stamped out in Europe a few years later.

Wiping Out Polio: How The U.S. Snuffed Out A Killer

Jason Beaubien — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 20:33:00 +0000

Sixty years ago, polio was one of the most feared diseases in the U.S.

As the weather warmed up each year, panic over polio intensified. Late summer was dubbed "polio season." Public swimming pools were shut down. Movie theaters urged patrons not to sit too close together to avoid spreading the disease. Insurance companies started selling polio insurance for newborns.

The fear was well grounded.

Fallout From Financial Crisis: Thousands Of Nigerian Kids Poisoned By Lead

Jason Beaubien — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 09:57:00 +0000

Gold in general has great PR. It's slick, it's hip, it's bling. But in a remote corner of West Africa, it's killing children.

Lead from illegal gold mines in northwestern Nigeria has sparked what Doctors Without Borders has called the worst case of environmental lead poisoning in years.

The catastrophe is part of the fallout from the collapse of the U.S.

In The Wake Of High Gold Prices, Lead Poisons Thousands Of Children

Jason Beaubien — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 16:58:00 +0000

Across a swath of northern Nigeria, a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding, as lead from illegal gold mines sickens thousands of children.

More than 400 kids have died, and many more have been mentally stunted for life.

Doctors Without Borders, which has set up clinics to treat the children, is calling it one of the worst cases of environmental lead poisoning in recent history.

The problem first came to light in 2010, when children in some villages started dying.

On The Road: Reporting On Lead Poisoning In Nigeria

Jason Beaubien — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 17:09:00 +0000

If you want to witness the health consequences of unsafe gold mining in northwestern Nigeria, the first thing you have to do is get to the mines

There's a crisis of severe lead poisoning near the mines that's killed hundreds of children and made thousands more sick.

The gold deposits are in a remote part of the country, near the border with Niger.

South African Children's Hospital Closed Under Apartheid To Reopen

Jason Beaubien — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 07:57:00 +0000

A large children's hospital in Durban, South Africa, is being rebuilt two decades after it closed owing to apartheid.

Botswana Doctors Stop Cervical Cancer With A Vinegar Swab

Jason Beaubien — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:55:00 +0000

In the U.S., the pap smear has become a routine part of women's health care, and it's dramatically reduced cervical cancer deaths.

A Troubling Rise In Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

Jason Beaubien — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 13:46:00 +0000

Cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis are increasing around the globe, and at a faster rate than previously thought. And if that weren't enough, TB is quickly building resistance to more and more of the drugs commonly used to fight it.

The troubling picture emerged in a study just published in The Lancet.

The study, led by Dr.