In an executive order signed Monday, President Joe Biden announced steps by his administration to bolster the “bioeconomy” in the United States, a classification that covers research and development across a broad swath of products, including medical supplies, sustainable new …
President Joe Biden on Monday urged Americans to come together for a new “national purpose” — his administration’s effort to end cancer “as we know it.” At the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Biden channeled JFK’s famed moonshot …
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Monday recommended a COVID-19 booster designed to combat the currently circulating Omicron BA.4/5 subvariants, days after endorsing a pair of boosters tailored to target the older BA.1 Omicron variant. The latest recommendation is for …
Jeff Bezos’ rocket company suffered its first launch failure Monday. No one was aboard, only science experiments. The Blue Origin rocket veered off course over West Texas about a minute after liftoff. The capsule’s launch abort system immediately kicked in, …
When Emmanuel Obeng-Dankwa is worried about making rent on his New York City apartment, he sometimes holds off on filling his blood pressure medication. “If there’s no money, I prefer to skip the medication to being homeless,” said Obeng-Dankwa, a …
New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a disaster emergency Friday in a bid to accelerate efforts to vaccinate residents against polio after the virus was detected in wastewater samples taken in four counties. Hochul’s executive order followed the discovery of …
NASA’s moon mission suffers another setback, this time delaying a test launch for at least a few weeks. Plus, a look back at the first color images of Mars, and we wish a very happy birthday to a TV space pioneer. …
The introduction of a nationwide mental health hotline has increased the numbers of people calling for help in the United States and the need for more counselors to answer their calls. For VOA, Svitlana Prystynska has this story from the …
The World Health Organization is warning of a resurgence of deadly meningitis in Africa because COVID-19 has disrupted lifesaving vaccination campaigns. The near elimination of the deadly form of meningitis type A in Africa is one of the continent’s biggest …
A new malaria vaccine developed by Britain’s University of Oxford is 80% effective in preventing infection, according to trial results published Thursday in The Lancet medical journal. Scientists say it represents a huge breakthrough that has the potential to save …
A panel of federal health advisers voted Wednesday to recommend approval for an experimental drug to treat Lou Gehrig’s disease, a remarkable turnaround for the much-debated medication that was previously rejected by the same group earlier this year. The Food …
As the world grapples with multiple climate-related disasters on different continents, a watchdog group in Washington is pressing the Biden administration to take more aggressive action to reduce emissions in the United States. A report, issued by the liberal-leaning Revolving …
Electronic cigarette maker Juul Labs has agreed to pay nearly $440 million to settle a two-year investigation by 33 U.S. states into the marketing of its high-nicotine vaping products, which have long been blamed for sparking a national surge in …
Zimbabwe is struggling to contain a measles outbreak that has killed nearly 700 people, most of them children and young people. Zimbabwe’s government said Tuesday thousands of people have been infected with measles since an April outbreak and 698 people …
The death toll from a measles outbreak in Zimbabwe has risen to almost 700 children, the country’s health ministry has said. Some are calling for the enactment of legislation to make vaccination mandatory in a country where anti-modern medicine religious …
Argentine health officials said Saturday that four people in a clinic in northwestern Tucuman province had died of Legionnaires’ disease, a relatively rare bacterial infection of the lungs. Health Minister Carla Vizzotti told reporters that Legionnaires’ had been identified as …
The U.K. will begin its autumn COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the coming weeks after authorizing booster shots made by Pfizer and Moderna that have been modified to target both the original virus and the widely circulating omicron variant. The Medicines …
A protest by a group of HIV-positive people in New Delhi, demanding a regular supply of life-saving antiretroviral therapy drugs across the country, ended this week, after 42 days, as the government has reportedly resumed the interrupted supply of the …
The World Health Organization is monitoring a cluster of 10 cases of pneumonia from an unknown cause in an outbreak in Argentina that so far has included three deaths. The cases are linked to a single private clinic in the …
A new hormone treatment improved the cognitive function of six men with Down syndrome by 10% to 30%, scientists said this week, adding the “promising” results may raise hopes of improving patients’ quality of life. However, the scientists emphasized the …
The Serum Institute of India signed a deal this week with South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare to make four vaccines used in Africa. The deal has been hailed as saving local vaccine production, which was at risk of shutting down after …
Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela is the largest lake in South America and one of the world’s oldest. It is coming under increasing threat from oil spills, plastic pollution, and an alga popularly known locally as “verdín,” which can suffocate fish. …
Australia has had some of the world’s strictest disease-control measures. Some of those last remaining COVID-19 restrictions now are being eased. At the height of the pandemic, millions of people were forced into protracted lockdowns, masks were mandatory and many …
U.S. health advisers on Thursday endorsed new COVID-19 boosters that target today’s most common omicron strains, saying if enough people roll up their sleeves, the updated shots could blunt a winter surge. The tweaked shots made by Pfizer and Moderna …