By Lily Kuo
More people are living longer but not necessarily healthier lives.
By The Data Team
OVER the past 100 years, mankind has made great leaps in eliminating diseases and learning how to keep people alive. The life expectancy of a person born in America in 1900 was just 47 years. Eighty years later that figure had increased to 70 years for men and 77 years for women. But since then progress has slowed: a boy born in America in 2013 is expected to live just six years longer than his 1990 cohort. And not all of his twilight years will be golden.
By Johnny Harris
Where you were born can dramatically affect how and at what age you die. That's the conclusion the 2013 edition of a Global Burden of Disease study. Watch how and why people are dying early in every country:
By Brady Dennis
One of the biggest hurdles to halting foodborne illness outbreaks is spotting the source of the problem – and spotting it quickly. More often than not, by the time authorities recognize an outbreak of salmonella, listeria or any of the other pathogens that sicken an estimated 48 million Americans each year, it already has had time to spread.
By Rueters
An experimental vaginal gel containing a drug used to treat the AIDS virus could prevent half of cases of genital herpes, according to a study done in South Africa.
Among women who used tenofovir gel, the annual rate of infection with the genital herpes virus, known as herpes simplex virus type 2 or HSV-2, was 10.2 percent versus a rate of 21 percent for women who used a placebo gel.
By Will Greene / Techonomy
In many emerging markets, reliable data on healthcare systems is limited or nonexistent. This makes it difficult to address urgent healthcare challenges in many countries. But a growing number of tech entrepreneurs and public health activists are finding ways to fill the data gaps.
By Amy Vanderzanden
Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for women in 40 of the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, according to the most reliable health statistics.
By Bjørn Lomborg
In rich countries, the biggest causes of death are strokes, heart attacks and cancer, accounting for more than two-thirds of all deaths. But for the poorer world, people often assume that infectious diseases like diarrhea, tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria, measles and tetanus are the biggest killers. That is no longer true. While they are still substantial threats, broader availability of medication and vaccines along with higher living standards has caused such communicable diseases to drop dramatically to below 9 million deaths each year.
After rising for decades, calorie consumption has declined in recent years as public attitudes have shifted.
By Margot Sanger-Katz
After decades of worsening diets and sharp increases in obesity, Americans’ eating habits have begun changing for the better.
By Barry Meier
When a law firm hired by Qatar, the site of the 2022 World Cup, issued a report last year urging reforms in the treatment of migrant construction workers there, human rights groups expected the tiny oil-rich Persian Gulf nation to respond quickly.