Forty-seven years after a vaccine against rubella was created, the virus still harms about 300 newborns every day, worldwide. Even a cheap vaccine can be a financial burden for poorer countries.
When summer brings heat, humidity and mosquitoes, cities along the Gulf Coast may become gateways for Zika into the U.S. Impoverished areas are likely to bear the brunt, health officials say.
Some people struggle for years with asthma and sinus infections, unaware that they have a disease called aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease. For them, aspirin can be both cause and cure.
A photo of Whole Foods' plastic-packaged peeled oranges went viral on Twitter, prompting outrage about environmental waste. Who the heck needs this? People with disabilities say they do.
In the first half of the 20th century, American eugenicists used forced sterilization to "breed out" traits they considered undesirable. Adam Cohen tells the story in his new book, Imbeciles.
My heart fell when a counselor called to say he was worried something bad might have happened to Nat, my severely autistic 25-year-old son. Nat has trouble talking, and was teary. What should I do?
Federal rules mostly prohibit nursing homes from refusing to readmit residents after a hospital stay. But states rarely enforce the regulations. Some California families are now suing the state.
Fewer people are having strokes now than decades ago. But that improvement seems to be mostly among the elderly. Young people are actually having more strokes, partly because of the rise in obesity.
Raising a child with autism can test families financially and emotionally. NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with parents of children with autism, and a young woman who was diagnosed later in life.
Service dogs help veterans with physical disabilities, and there's increased interest in using dogs for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, too. A study is underway to see whether that helps.
The holidays can be difficult for families dealing with Alzheimer's, especially if the person with the disease is the one who used to be the heart and soul of Christmas.
Testing your hearing is just a phone call away. Doctors hope a cheap, simple at-home test will encourage more people to get their hearing checked, and get help if they need it.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly for Kris Penny, who pulled fiber-optic cables for a living. Then he got a cancer called mesothelioma that's almost always tied to asbestos exposure.
A new app called Be My Eyes pairs blind people with sighted volunteers who help them with daily tasks that require vision, at home and outside. It's part of a new "micro-volunteering" trend online.
Budget cuts and rising costs are imperiling California's programs for people with developmental disabilities. The state had led the nation in providing innovative community based services.
Sophie Sartain watched her grandmother take care of her intellectually disabled aunt, Dona, and thought that she could never be that devoted. Then her son was diagnosed with autism.
A Seattle businessman left most of his fortune to a blindness organization he never contacted in life. Why the gift? Maybe, the evidence hints, to help others take the psychological leap he couldn't.
Doctors were once unquestioned authorities on how aggressively to treat the sickest and most premature babies. Then parents started pushing back for more say. The responsibility can be excruciating.
As families consider how far to push an infant's medical care, a chasm can open between the parents' hopes and what doctors and nurses consider realistic. How do you measure a baby's quality of life?
Elder abuse is underestimated, researchers say, and includes physical, emotional and sexual abuse as well as financial exploitation. Doctors, lawyers or banks are often the first to spot problems.
"You can evaluate the person as a whole," says Dr. Roberta Miller, who has been a home care physician for more than 20 years. The traditional house call may be the future of medicine.
Sometimes neck pain just doesn't go away. Complementary treatments like acupuncture and Alexander Technique can help reduce the pain, a study finds, though they are not miracle cures.
The National Institutes of Health has promised to put more money into research on an illness that many people feel has been dissed by the medical establishment.
