Archive for the 'Articles' Category

Revenge of the microbes: taming drug-resistant malaria

An alarming new report published by The Lancet on April 5 reveals that drug-resistant malaria has spontaneously emerged from yet another hotspot in southeast Asia. If the super-parasites erupt elsewhere—such as in malaria’s African heartland—years of progress against the disease could be rapidly unravelled.
Malaria parasites that resist the wonder drug, artemisinin, were first sighted five [...]

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Can “The Hunger Games” raise awareness about hunger? My review from The Lancet

The World Food Program, among other anti-hunger groups, have teamed up with the film “The Hunger Games” to raise awareness about hunger (the real kind as opposed to the fictional, game-like version). Here’s my review of their efforts–and the film–from The Lancet.

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My new story on antibiotic resistant bugs in India, in Foreign Affairs

My new story on the emergence of a dangerous new form of antibiotic resistant bacteria in India, and how commercial concerns may be complicating efforts to tame it, appears in this week’s Foreign Affairs. Check it out at Foreign Affairs.
Also out: a nifty audio slideshow from my trip to India, on the website of the [...]

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Pulitzer’s video of me talking about my reporting in India

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My story on super-resistant bacteria in New Delhi, in The Atlantic

This is the first of a series of reports on NDM-1 bacteria, bugs endowed with the ability to resist not only commonly used antibiotics but the last-resort IV antibiotics used only in hospitals. NDM-1 first emerged in New Delhi (and is, controversially, named after the city) and has since spread to over 35 countries, primarily [...]

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Discussing global health and privatization on NPR’s “To The Point” today

I’ll be talking about my article on private interests in global health on NPR’s “To The Point” today, live at 11 am PT, 2 pm ET.  Economist Daniel Altman and Center for Science in the Public Interest’s Bill Jeffrey will be joining, too. Check here for a station list or to listen now.

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My story on private interests in global health, now at Foreign Affairs.com

In this piece, I look at how major private industry–oil and gas companies, the fast-food industry, and Big Pharma–are transforming the global health agenda. In sum: it’s not good. The story is the product of about 6 months of research, supported by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute. Check it out here.
“How Private Companies [...]

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My Wall Street Journal review of “Lifeblood” by Alex Perry

Alex Perry, of TIME magazine, shadowed millionaire investor-turned-malaria activist Ray Chambers, the UN Special Envoy for malaria, as he attempted to blanket the continent of Africa with treated bednets, and then wrote this short book about it, which I reviewed for The Wall Street Journal. It was a difficult review to write, because while I [...]

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The Guardian’s take on our panel at the World Conference of Science Journalists

In the end, I had to Skype in to this year’s World Conference of Science Journalists conference in Doha, Qatar, and deliver my presentation on the issue of drug trials in developing countries via YouTube video. (You can check it out here.) Here’s what the Guardian newspaper had to say about it. “Ethics left behind [...]

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New story on cholera and the climate

My report on cholera’s deep links to the climate–and the ongoing controversy over the origins of the ongoing outbreak of cholera in Haiti–appears in this week’s Yale Environment 360. Check it out here.

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