Where You're Born Even Within A Country Still Matters (NPR - Features Simon Hay)

Better vaccines, nutrition and disease control have cut the global death rate for children in half over the past 20 years. But even within countries that have made major progress, children can face greatly different fates.

"Where you're born substantially impacts your probability of surviving to 5," says Simon Hay, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington who is the lead author of a new study on childhood mortality in Nature.

China Is Winning Some Health-Care Battles — And Losing Others

Ten years into China's multi-billion dollar investment in health-care reform, the country has made "spectacular" progress on some top public health challenges — including insurance coverage and deaths of children. But it's facing an uphill battle on others, including second-hand smoke and cancer, according to a special China-themed issue on September 28 of the journal The Lancet.

NPR: The Debate is On: To Deworm or Not to Deworm?

By Susan Brink

..."There's evidence that children treated with deworming medication grow better and have better cognitive performance," says Judd Walson, associate professor at the University of Washington. Walson wrote an editorial in the Oct. 22 issue of PLOS: Neglected Tropical Diseases. "A study from Kenya showed better school performance and even better job performance.“

NPR: Breast Cancer in the Developing World: Rising Rates, Shrouded in Silence

By Marc Silver

A woman finds a lump in her breast.

And for a long time, she doesn't tell anybody. Not her family. And not her doctor.

That happens all too often in low- and lower-middle-income countries, says Dr. Ben Anderson, a surgical oncologist who is the director of the Breast Health Global Initiative at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.