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Tropical diseases

Dengue, Zika and chikungunya viruses are spread by the Aedes species of mosquito, like the Aedes albopictus pictured here

An unlikely hero could help in the fight against deadly mosquito-borne disease

Disease

In a breakthrough study, scientists released mosquitoes infected with a special kind of bacteria into an Indonesian city and saw a 77% drop in dengue cases.

People line up outside a hospital.

There’s a way for modern medicine to cure diseases even when the treatments aren’t profitable

Health & Medicine
A man sits while getting his temperature checked.

‘No place for complacency’ as Ebola detected in eastern DR Congo

Health & Medicine
A woman holds a pamphlet in front of a blue door.

Leprosy in India is back, but it never really went away

Health & Medicine
A baboon stakes out a walkway near the entrance of Tanzania's Udzungwa National Park. With human settlement at the base of the still wild Udzungwa Mountains growing fast, humans and wild animals are coming into ever more frequent contact, creating what on

To prevent the next Ebola, scientists try to catch new viruses before they break out

Environment
As the Ebola epidemic peaks, new challenges are emerging in Liberia

Now that Ebola is subsiding, the question is what to do with contaminated sewage

Health

Disposing of millions of tons of potentially Ebola infected human sewage is no easy task. But Liberia has is attempting its own solution.

At Redemption Hospital in Liberia, health workers screen patients for Ebola at the entrance to the facility, cleaning them off with a chlorine solution, taking their temperature and asking a series of questions. "At our hospital we have tried to create a

Ebola is creating a new epidemic of untreated illness and injury

Health

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is slowing in some areas, but the crisis is far from over. And the virus’ grip on the medical system in countries like Liberia means that people with other diseases or injuries often go without medical help.

Jimmy Carter

President Jimmy Carter is still fighting to eradicate tropical diseases

Health

Former President Jimmy Carter’s legacy is as a peacemaker — most especially after he left office. One of his biggest goals has been to help eradicate tropical diseases, and he’s having some success.

Nurse Kaci Hickox and her boyfriend, Ted Wilbur, speak with the media outside of their home in Fort Kent, Maine, on October 31, 2014. Hickox defied quarantine orders in New Jersey and Maine after returning from West Africa but testing negative for Ebola.

Calm down — America is officially Ebola-free

Health

The US responded to Ebola quickly, and succeeded in stamping out the small number of known cases. Now that the last Ebola patient in the country has been cleared, one doctor says it’s time to refocus on West Africa.

Sierra Leonean nurse Veronica Koroma (left) and doctor Donald Samuel Grant (right) stand by a patient in the Lassa fever ward at Kenema Government Hospital in February, 2011

West Africans have another virus to worry about — Lassa fever

Health

Hospitals in West Africa are preparing to receive patients infected with Lassa fever, but the ongoing Ebola outbreak means that’s no easy task. The virus, which emerges regularly, tends to spike in January and February and presents with symptoms very similarly to the Ebola virus.