5 things we know and still don't know about COVID, 5 years after it appeared

Five years ago, a cluster of people in Wuhan, China, fell sick with a virus never before seen in the world. The germ didn't have a name, nor did the illness it would cause. It wound up setting off a pandemic that exposed deep inequities in the global health system and reshaped public...

Jimmy Carter made eradicating Guinea worm disease a top mission

JARWENG, South Sudan (AP) — Nobel Prize-winning peacemaker Jimmy Carter spent nearly four decades waging war to eliminate an ancient parasite plaguing the world’s poorest people. Rarely fatal but searingly painful and debilitating, Guinea worm disease infects people who drink...

Head of World Health Organization says Israeli bombardment in Yemen's capital hit "meters" away from him and colleagues

Rwanda and WHO declare end of Marburg outbreak after no new cases reported

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — The World Health Organization and the Rwandan government on Friday declared the outbreak in Rwanda of the Ebola-like Marburg fever over after no new cases were registered in recent weeks. The country first declared the outbreak on Sept. 27 and reported a...

Congo man dies with hemorrhagic fever, indicating mystery outbreak could be more than just malaria

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A man in western Congo died Thursday with hemorrhagic fever symptoms, leading officials to suspect that a still-unidentified virus may be involved alongside malaria in a mysterious outbreak that has killed dozens of people, health authorities said. Congo...

Pakistan postpones polio vaccination drive in Balochistan after health workers boycotted it

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani authorities on Wednesday postponed a polio vaccination campaign in the country's restive southern Balochistan province after health workers boycotted it to oppose a proposed privatization of hospitals. Authorities on Monday launched the final...

Pakistan begins last anti-polio vaccination campaign of the year after a surge in cases

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan on Monday began its last nationwide vaccination campaign for the year to protect 45 million children from polio after a surge in new cases hampered efforts to stop the disease, officials said. According to the World Health Organization, Pakistan and...

Hardest-hit Nigeria is latest African country to provide malaria vaccine to young children

BAYELSA, Nigeria (AP) — Ominike Marvis has lost count of the number of times her 6-year-old son has had malaria. So when Nigeria started offering a malaria vaccine, she was eager to protect her youngest child. She took the 6-month-old baby to get his first shot at a health center...

Authorities say the mystery disease in Congo might be malaria but more testing is needed

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — The mystery flu-like illness that has killed dozens of people in southwest Congo in recent weeks might be malaria, according to results from laboratory samples of infected people, authorities said Wednesday. “Of the 12 samples taken, nine were positive for...

Dengue cases set a new record in the Americas this year as deaths also surge

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Dengue fever is sweeping across the Caribbean and the Americas, with a record 12.6 million suspected cases of the mosquito-transmitted virus reported this year, nearly triple the number from last year, health officials said Tuesday. Cases of dengue have...