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

The Struggle for Health in Chiapas

An infant born in the state of Chiapas as three times as likely to die as the rate for Mexico as a whole. The maternal mortality rate in neighboring Oaxaca is twice the national average. This project explains why, and what is being done in response.

Dominican Republic: Life on the Margins

Some of the most marginalized people in the Caribbean are Haitian immigrants, and their descendents, living in the Dominican Republic.

Glass Closet: Sex, Stigma and HIV/AIDS in Jamaica

Jamaica has the reputation of being one of the most violently anti-gay countries on earth. Male homosexual acts are criminalized – and can be punished with up to 10 years of hard time in prison.

Mothers of Ethiopia

In the U.S., a woman has a 1 in 4,800 chance of dying from complications due to pregnancy or childbirth in her lifetime. In Ethiopia, a woman has a 1 in 27 chance of dying. Hanna shares her experiences and observations in a five-part series on Mothers Of Ethiopia.

Guinea-Bissau: Dying for Treatment

Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region on Earth, is a place where more than 600,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth every year due to lack of proper care and only 30 percent of the population has access to health care at all. The situation in Guinea-Bissau is among the...

Cuba: Tropical Depression

Six months after Fidel Castro's exit, Lygia Navarro explores the hidden epidemic of depression in Cuba. With the wait for social and economic transformation dragging on, many Cubans find escape from the difficulty of day-to-day life in black-market sleeping pills. Although Cuba's medical system is lauded internationally, the government...

Field Notes Podcast: Featuring Our Student Fellows

Our student fellows and professional journalists reflect on the importance of being flexible, remaining open to where stories lead, and listening to the people whose stories we tell.