The Latest Breaking News from Public Health

Modern medicine has enabled citizens of wealthy, industrialized nations to forget that children once routinely died in shocking numbers. Teaching 19th-century English literature, I regularly encounter gutting depictions of losing a child, and I am reminded that not knowing the emotional cost of widespread child mortality is a luxury.

In 1988, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for the global eradication of polio. Within a decade, one of the three poliovirus strains was already virtually eradicated — meaning a permanent reduction of the disease to zero new cases worldwide.

The EPA bans trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE), marking a significant step toward protecting public health from cancer-causing chemicals.

Moldiag in Africa produces mpox tests to combat COVID-19, addressing testing challenges and promoting local manufacturing for public health emergencies.

Resort town struggles with squalid housing, poor nutrition for children and now, statistics show, earlier deaths

An investigation has been launched after a laboratory lost hundreds of infectious virus samples, but a state government has played down the public health risk.

Nominee Dr Janette Nesheiwat knocked over gun in 1990, causing it to fire and fatally shoot father in the head

Use of crystal meth is soaring among workers, partiers and the young and threatening a public health crisis

A “mystery disease” recently struck the south-western corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), killing between 67 and 143 people over two weeks. The disease was reported to cause flu-like symptoms of fever, headache, cough and anaemia.