Boniface Ushie, African Population and Health Research Center; Sara E Casey, Columbia University Medical Center, and Terry McGovern, Columbia University Medical Center
The Global Gag Rule transcends abortion and exacerbates weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the Kenyan health system.
A pump jack in the town of Signal Hill, California, which sits within the Long Beach Oil Field near the Port of Long Beach.
Frederick J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
A new study finds an association between living near active oil and gas wells in California and low birth-weight infants, adding to findings elsewhere on health risks from oil and gas production.
Lots of positive pregnancy tests this time of year.
Kristina Kokhanova/Shutterstock.com
Did you ever consider that human beings might have a breeding season? Birth seasonality exists – and has interesting implications for childhood disease outbreaks.
French President Emmanuel Macron has an HIV blood test as part of World AIDS Day observances Dec. 1, 2017.
Charles Platiau/Reuters
World AIDS Day is Dec. 1. With many advances in preventing and treating the disease, the disease has fallen from top of mind for many. An epidemiologist explains why that could be dangerous.
A nurse in Atlanta reaches for a vial of vaccine to prepare for an injection.
David Goldman/AP Photo
The flu shot is most effective if you receive it by the end of October. With 80,000 deaths from flu during last year's flu season, a doctor explains why you should act now.
Visitors to Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea at the border of North Korea and South Korea on Jan. 1, 2018.
AP Photo/Lee Jin-man
The Trump administration shelved its plans for a 'bloody nose' attack while the Olympics in South Korea were under way. With the games over, it's time to consider the consequences of a strike.
The Flint, Michigan water crisis highlighted problems with aging infrastructure.
Ehrlif/Shutterstock.com
For a country that spends more than US$3 trillion on health care, we are still dealing with many chronic health problems. Funding for clean water, sidewalks and smoking cessation could help.
Kaylee Wedderburn-Pugh, a SPURS student, working to help find answers to Huntington’s disease.
Author provided.
Affirmative action programs at universities are under threat by the Trump administration. That could be especially damaging to medical education. Who knows who holds the idea for the next great cure?
Girls in Tanzania listen to an instructor who is teaching them about menstruation.
From menstrualhygieneday.org
For millions of girls and women, menstruation is a burden. Here's why helping displaced and poor women and girls with their periods is a way to show true respect for them.
Community health workers like these visit patients’ homes in Malawi to help prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Baylor College of Medicine Children's Foundation–Malawi/Chris Cox
All recent Republican presidents have cut off foreign aid tied to abortion. Trump's expansive version of those restrictions endangers billions slated for HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
A director of a supportive housing center in Bronx, New York, talks with a resident and case worker in December 2015.
Bebeto Matthews/AP
About one in three homeless people has a significant mental illness. Providing housing for them has proved to be a boost not only to them and their communities, but also to budgets. Here's why.
From closed-loop ventilators to smarter vital sign monitors, automation has untapped potential to improve medical outcomes.
From www.shutterstock.com
Loneliness is a major cause of health problems, and many programs have aimed to alleviate it among the elderly. But it might be wise to treat loneliness at its roots, which for many is in childhood.
Women in rural Malawi, outside an AIDS hospital. AIDS was the first of the ‘new’ pandemic threats, after bird flu.
Author provided.
An active outbreak of a type of bird flu in China raises concerns about worldwide pandemics. Ebola and Zika viruses still threaten. Here's why this is not the time to cut funding.
Family practicing mindfulness together.
From www.shutterstock.com
With changes to health care insurance on hold, now may be a good time to focus not on health insurance but on health. More and more studies show that we do have some control over that. Here's how.
Many low-income girls in the U.S. don’t feel prepared for puberty.
Image of girls via www.shutterstock.com.
In developing countries, many girls feel unprepared when they go through puberty. And research indicates that low-income girls in the US may feel the same way.
A woman shows her support for Planned Parenthood at the Women’s March in New York City on Jan. 21.
The defunding of Planned Parenthood is a goal of many in the new administration. Here's a look at the facts about the group, including the number of people it serves and the services it provides.
Depression after pregnancy has been studied for a while, but less attention has been paid to depression during pregnancy, which occurs in one in 10 women. Here are some reasons it should be treated.
Commissioner of Health and Hospitals of Rockland County, Fellows Ambassador New York Academy of Medicine, Adjunct Professor in the Institute of Public Health, New York Medical College, Certified Physician Executive, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center
Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons; Faculty Member, Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, Columbia University Medical Center