Issue

Health

In Health, Pulitzer Center grantees delve into some of the world’s most pressing health issues and challenges. Featuring a wide range of topics from chronic illnesses to outbreaks and epidemics to reproductive health and public health systems, our reporting looks at the breadth of health issues found across the globe.

We also look at the global footprint of cancer, which kills more people than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. We examine the disproportionate burden placed on poorer countries, as well as the medical and business innovations that allow for treatment once thought too costly or too difficult to deliver.

Other projects look at mental health, including the trauma caused by conflicts like the wars in Syria and Yemen, the effects of pollution on communities, and safety and injury-related deaths, such as in our ongoing Roads Kill project.

By telling the stories of patients, caregivers, and scientists, our reporters are drawing outbreak comparisons and providing lessons for prevention. They are also taking on the challenge of communicating technical information to the lay ear, and ultimately filling the gap between the scientific and public understanding of health crises.

Health

Neyla’s Venezuela

After sitting in three planes and walking through four airports, Neyla couldn’t put her mother, who had stage 4 cancer, at risk of contracting COVID-19.

A High-Impact Health Solution in Nigeria

Here’s how one Nigerian state tackled the deadly bacterial infections that kill hundreds of thousands of babies worldwide each year—and why such a seemingly simple solution is so tough to pull off.

El Salvador: Sex Ed in the Time of Zika

In El Salvador abortion is illegal, violence against women common, and sex ed extremely limited. Did the Zika virus provide an opportunity for the country to talk about these culturally taboo topics?

Iceland: Ethical Challenges of Genetic Testing

Genetic scientists in Iceland want to warn 2,400 people who are more likely than others to develop breast cancer, but they can't. The individuals have the right not to know.

To Win the War on Lyme, Look at France

Despite having fewer yearly cases than Massachusetts, France is the first country to release a national plan on Lyme disease. What can France's prevention, research and treatment efforts teach us?

Russia: Women Hit Hard by HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is at a tipping point in Russia, where an estimated 1-1.5 million people are HIV positive and the Kremlin has long rejected international assistance. Women are being left behind.

This Week: Contagion That Travels by Plane

This week: How poor hygiene on planes leads to the spread of dangerous communicable diseases, how Sámi people are caught between a climate change solution and their own livelihoods, and how you can double your holiday gift to the Pulitzer Center.