Dec 13 Prisoners poison themselves with jailhouse wine Pruno, or "prison wine" is an alcoholic liquid made by prisoners from assorted food items. Photo by Flickr user Puddin n Tang When an inmate at a Utah Prison altered his pruno "wine" recipe by adding an old… Continue reading
Dec 11 What a concussion looks like inside your brain By Rebecca Jacobson, Inside Energy An MRI of a patient's brain 19 hours after a fall shows bleeding and damage to the meninges, the lining between the skull and the brain. Photo by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Concussions and traumatic… Continue reading
Dec 11 HealthCare.gov improves with varying success across states Navigator Nini Hadwen, right, speaks with consumers shopping for health insurance in Miami. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Mary Hualde, a navigator in Utah helping people sign up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, says HealthCare.gov is… Continue reading
Dec 10 Health insurers reduce coverage for 'poorly understood' genetic tests Lack of regulation and debate over the merits of genetic testing for diseases has lead some insurance companies to avoid funding the technology. Illustration by Getty Images The day when a simple blood test or saliva sample can identify your… Continue reading
Dec 09 HIV reappears in two Boston patients thought to be cured After discontinuing the use of antiretroviral drugs and seeing no signs of HIV for months, two men who were thought to be cured of the virus have seen their infections reappear, The Boston Globe reports. Continue reading
Dec 05 Malnutrition, infection rife in Central African Republic as violence escalates By Larisa Epatko An escalation of violence in the Central African Republic is causing thousands to flee their homes into the wilderness, posing a humanitarian challenge in a country that has suffered from destabilization for years. Continue reading
Dec 03 Why eliminating 'hospital purgatories' would save billions of dollars By Sarah Corapi Making observation services in U.S. hospitals more effective and efficient could save the system billions each year, according to a new study in the journal Health Affairs. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure… Continue reading
Dec 03 Obama launches campaign to resell health care law to the public EmbedVideo(8152); President Obama spoke on the Affordable Care Act on Tuesday, in an effort to resell the health care law's benefits to the public. Video by PBS NewsHour WASHINGTON -- Seeking to move past its website woes, the Obama… Continue reading
Dec 03 How to save a dying heart By Dr. Howard Markel In a monthly column for PBS NewsHour, Dr. Howard Markel revisits moments that changed the course of modern health and medicine on their anniversaries, like the world's first human heart transplant on Dec. 3, 1967. In the photo above, Amy… Continue reading
Dec 02 White House gives check-up on HealthCare.gov website By Terence Burlij The Health and Human Services Department released a progress report Sunday on its effort get the troubled HealthCare.gov website on the mend. Administration officials said the worst of the online glitches, bugs and delays may be over. Photo by Andrew… Continue reading