After a decade of failure in treating Alzheimer's with drugs, the National Institutes of Health is funding a five-year effort in Seattle to learn more about how the disease starts in the brain.
If you miss your mom and dad — or they miss their grandkids — how safe is a summer trip? Older people are more likely to get seriously ill from the coronavirus, so consider these tips to reduce risk.
After three months of restrictions, nursing homes in the state are beginning to allow visitors again. Families are learning that the experience of reopening won't be the same for everyone.
At least 711 nursing homes reported running out of N95 masks at the end of May, and 1,963 said they had less than a week's worth. "The federal government has got to step up," says one advocate.
As more and more people filter back to the workplace, many face a tiny space that can create a large logjam: the elevator. Even the lobby is fraught with coronavirus questions. We have answers.
The unconscious man was a Beatles fan, his sister said. When she couldn't be with him in his final ICU hours she asked Dr. Daniel Colón Hidalgo to play music and say the words she wanted him to hear.
Nationwide, coronavirus infection numbers are trending down, but several states are seeing upticks, with the heaviest impact falling on communities of color and nursing home residents.
A paper suggesting hydroxychloroquine increases the risk of death for patients with COVID-19 has been retracted by three of its authors because they were not able to verify the data used in the study.
Dr. Francis Collins says some candidates for a coronavirus vaccine will be ready to start large-scale human trials as early as next month. Scaling up production may start before tests are complete.
A study of more than 800 health workers, first responders and others finds that taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19 is no better than a placebo in preventing the illness.
Most preventive medical care that can't be handled via telehealth has taken a back seat in recent months, but that's starting to change. Here's what to ask when you schedule an in-person appointment.
"The speed with which this has happened is really devastating," says Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. He warns the outbreak will leave no part of the U.S. untouched.
Even as social restrictions ease in some spots, older adults remain extra-vulnerable to COVID-19. That means many families are facing hard choices — whether to hunker down together or apart.
Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine responded to critics who say there are holes in the state's plan to test all residents and staff at nursing homes: "The plan is an evolution."
Car traffic took a big dip beginning in late March, and headlines celebrated clean air around the U.S. But an NPR analysis of EPA data tells a more troubling story.
Congress authorized $100 billion to reimburse health care providers for losses linked to the pandemic, but much of that money has gone for Medicare patients, with low-income families left behind.
NPR's correspondent who covers aging and Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, answer listener questions about nursing homes and COVID-19.
The report comes as the government announced all states must now meet federal reporting guidelines. The type of information gathered by states up to now has been inconsistent.
Call them victory anthems. Every time a patient with COVID-19 is well enough to be discharged, hospitals in New York and elsewhere play songs of celebration over the intercom. A doctor explains.
How many more might recover, if they had a loved one by their side while fighting for life? An only son aches for the healing power of human touch in his mother's last days, and at her funeral.
Access to testing is still uneven in the nation's largest state. Even as some urban counties offer tests to anyone who wants one, a rural county is testing raw sewage to track the virus.
To get better data this week on a hard-hit community, the public health department and researchers are offering free testing for everyone over age 4 in a broad swath of the Mission District.
Psychologist Susan Pinker explains why face-to-face connection is a human necessity. But during this period of isolation, she says some ways of connecting online are better substitutes than others.
U.S. health officials said equipping six cities with extra testing would pick up under-the-radar viral spread. But an NPR investigation finds conflicts and shortages caused painful delays.
