Now Playing

Loading streams...

WFAE Voices

Ben Bradford
Ben Bradford
Reporter
Greg Collard
Greg Collard
News Director
Mike Collins
Mike Collins
Charlotte Talks Host
Briana Duggan
Briana Duggan
CAJA Fellow
Duncan McFadyen
Duncan McFadyen
Weekend Edition Saturday Host/Reporter
Lisa Miller
Lisa Miller
Reporter
Julie Rose
Julie Rose
Reporter
Mark Rumsey
Mark Rumsey
Community Engagement Coordinator/All Things Considered Host
Tasnim Shamma
Tasnim Shamma
Reporter
Marshall Terry
Marshall Terry
Reporter/Newscaster
Michael Tomsic
Michael Tomsic
Reporter

Podcasts & RSS Feeds

All ContentRSS
View all podcasts & RSS feeds

NPR News

Pages

Shots - Health News
4:07 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Wiping Out Polio: How The U.S. Snuffed Out A Killer

Next imagePrevious image
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
On April 12, 1955, Dr. Jonas Salk and his research team at the University of Pittsburgh released the first successful vaccine for polio. In 1979, the U.S. reported its last case of the paralyzing virus.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital Archive.
Many people infected with polio don't show any symptoms. Some become temporarily paralyzed; for others, it's permanent. In 1952, the polio epidemic reached a peak in the U.S.: almost 58,000 reported cases and more than 3,000 deaths.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital Archive.
Before the polio vaccine was developed, doctors tried to treat patients with ultraviolet light, which was known to inactivate the virus in the lab.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
While receiving a polio vaccine, Cheryl Halpin watches Salk inoculate another child on television.
Credit AP
The vast majority of polio victims are children, but it can also strike adults. Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted polio in 1921 at age 39. Here, two men lift a little girl in a wheelchair so that Roosevelt can greet her from his vehicle during his first presidential campaign.
Credit AP
Many celebrities and actresses helped to promote the fight against polio. In this image from 1953, the British actress Margaret Lockwood speaks with a young polio survivor, 4-year-old Mary Burton, as they buy stamps to support polio research and treatment.
Credit AP
Patricia, 6, and Pamela, 5, were stricken with polio in 1948. They were poster children for the March of Dimes' campaign efforts to eradicate infantile paralysis. This poster first appeared in 1952.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
The global health community stepped up its fight against polio in the 1980s. Here, a poster from the Qatari Ministry of Health promotes polio vaccination by foreshadowing the young boy's fate if he doesn't receive the protective drops.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
A poster distributed by French public health officials promotes polio vaccination by representing the shot as a protective umbrella.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
A British postcard promotes the importance of vaccinating against polio.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
A poster from Ecuador shows the "vaccination diploma" children receive after they're inoculated against polio, pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, tuberculosis and measles. Polio was stamped out in the Western Hemisphere in 1991.
Credit Courtesy of the Boston Children's Hospital Archive.
A major roadblock for developing the polio vaccine: growing the virus in the laboratory. Scientist John Enders was the first to overcome this challenge in 1949 — a feat that earned him a Nobel Prize in 1954 and Time magazine's Man of the Year title in 1961. Salk used Enders' technique to create the polio vaccine.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital Archive.
Many polio victims couldn't breathe on their own because of paralysis in their chest muscles. The iron lung — a simple, air-tight chamber that regulates air pressure — kept patients breathing until the paralysis passed. At the peak of the epidemic, rows of iron lung ventilators filled hospital rooms.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital Archive
During the peak of the polio epidemic in the U.S., some hospital wards even had large, room-like iron lungs where multiple children lived.
Credit Courtesy of the Boston Children's Hospital Archive
Many people infected with polio don't show any symptoms. Some become temporarily paralyzed; for others, it's permanent. In 1952, the polio epidemic reached a peak in U.S.: almost 58,000 reported cases and more than 3,000 deaths.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital
Many polio victims couldn't breathe on their own because of paralysis in their chest muscles. The iron lung — a simple, air-tight chamber that regulates air pressure — kept patients breathing until the paralysis passed. At the peak of the epidemic, rows of iron lung ventilators filled hospital rooms.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By

Originally published on Wed January 23, 2013 2:55 pm

Sixty years ago, polio was one of the most feared diseases in the U.S.

As the weather warmed up each year, panic over polio intensified. Late summer was dubbed "polio season." Public swimming pools were shut down. Movie theaters urged patrons not to sit too close together to avoid spreading the disease. Insurance companies started selling polio insurance for newborns.

The fear was well grounded. By the 1950s, polio had become one of the most serious communicable diseases among children in the United States.

Read more
Shots - Health News
4:04 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Girls Vaccinated For HPV Not More Likely To Be Sexually Active

Credit John Amis / AP
An 18-year-old girl winces as she has her third and final shot of the HPV vaccine.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Mon March 25, 2013 2:49 pm

Giving the human papillomavirus vaccine to teenage girls doesn't increase the likelihood that they will be sexually active, according to a new study.

That may help put parents at ease; the notion of vaccinating 11- and 12-year-old girls for a sexually transmitted virus has made some uncomfortable, and is one reason why only a little more than half of teenage girls have had the vaccine.

Read more
The Salt
3:33 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Jerusalem: A Love Letter To Food And Memories Of Home

Next imagePrevious image
Credit Jonathan Lovekin / Ten Speed Press
A boy chooses fruit from a stall as Jerusalem market vendors swirl around him.
Credit Jonathan Lovekin / Ten Speed Press
A fresh fruit and vegetable stall in Jerusalem.
Credit Jonathan Lovekind / Ten Speed Press
Bagels on display in a Jerusalem market.
Credit Jonathan Lovekind / Ten Speed Press
In Jerusalem, many worlds come together, yet remain apart, at the marketplace.
Credit Jonathan Lovekind / Ten Speed Press
A shopper chooses a melon from a market stall in Jerusalem.
Credit Jonathan Lovekin / Ten Speed Press
A boy chooses fruit from a stall as Jerusalem market vendors swirl around him.
Credit Richard Learoyd / Ten Speed Press
Sami Tamimi is a partner and the head chef at Ottolenghi, a restaurant with four London locations.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Mon October 15, 2012 6:46 pm

Jerusalem is known for its bitter politics, a divided city where decades of religious and political strife have torn away shared spaces. But as British-Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi tells NPR's Melissa Block, if there's one place in which Jerusalemites of all stripes still stand united, it's in their love of food.

Read more
The Two-Way
3:19 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Citizen Scientists Discover A Strange Planet In Four-Star System

Credit Haven Giguere / Yale
An artist's illustration of PH1, a planet discovered by volunteers from the Planet Hunters citizen science project. PH1, shown in the foreground, is a circumbinary planet and orbits two suns.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By Eyder Peralta

The universe continues to surprise us. Two citizen scientists have discovered a very rare world: A planet that orbits two stars and has a second pair of stars revolving around it.

Wired explains just how odd this is:

Read more
Monkey See
2:45 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

'Beauty Is Embarrassing': Giant Puppets, Painted Words, And What Art Is All About

Next imagePrevious image
Credit Beauty Is Embarrassing
A giant LBJ puppet head is one of Wayne White's creations in the documentary Beauty Is Embarrassing.
Credit Beauty Is Embarrassing
Share
E-mail
Comments
By

Originally published on Mon October 15, 2012 3:13 pm

I didn't actually know the name "Wayne White" when I went to see the documentary Beauty Is Embarrassing at Silverdocs this summer. But as it turns out, I've certainly seen his work, and even if, like me, you're not visual-arts-oriented enough to know his marvelous word paintings, you may have, too.

Read more
Movie Interviews
2:40 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Tyler Perry Transforms: From Madea To Family Man

Credit Sidney Baldwin / 2012 Summit Entertainment LLC
Tyler Perry is currently starring in the new action thriller Alex Cross, which opens in theaters on Friday.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Whenever Tyler Perry is in front of the camera, he's usually behind it as well. A screenwriter, director, producer and star, Perry grew up poor in New Orleans, but he has become a movie phenomenon — he was described in the New Yorker as the most financially successful black man the American film industry has ever known.

Read more
The Two-Way
2:31 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

For About $20, Cardboard Bicycle Could 'Change The World,' Inventor Says

Credit Baz Ratner / Reuters /Landov
Israeli inventor and his cardboard bicycle.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By

Originally published on Tue October 16, 2012 3:53 pm

Reuters today catches up on a story that's been getting some traction in recent weeks:

An Israeli inventor has come up with a way to make a bicycle almost entirely out of cardboard — and so inexpensively that he thinks retailers would only need to charge about $20 for one.

Read more
Remembrances
2:12 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

'Killing Fields' Author Remembers Cambodian King

Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Mon October 15, 2012 4:05 pm

Transcript

NEAL CONAN, HOST:

Few stories in the 20th century are more tragic than the fate of Cambodia, a small, peaceful country on the sidelines of the war in Vietnam. Cambodia would be invaded by both sides, carpet-bombed by the United States, taken over by murderous Maoists, invaded again by the Vietnamese and left to wither for a decade by a grotesque, international impasse.

Read more
Politics
1:49 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

How Much Power Does The President Really Have?

Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

In three weeks, millions of Americans cast their vote for president in an election that both campaigns depict as a stark choice between two fundamentally different visions for the country. But the chief executive's power is limited in real ways, by Congress, foreign interests, and other players.

Law
1:49 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

CIA's Ex-Con Code Thief Reflects On His Career

Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Mon October 15, 2012 2:49 pm

Douglas Groat traveled the world for the Central Intelligence Agency, breaking into foreign embassies and stealing secret codes. But then he questioned his superiors about one operation that nearly failed. His subsequent battle with the CIA led to accusations of extortion and four years in prison.

Pages