Insights

“HIV is the face of the forgotten people in this country,” Dr. Carlos Del Rio, an Atlanta-based AIDS expert, told me last February. Nevertheless, there continue to be "hot spots” where the disease thrives. Those areas are some of the most impoverished parts of major cities in the U.S.

The site of the most significant childhood cancer cluster on national record can shed light on why epidemiology and other scientific inquiries into environmental health problems rarely secure regulatory change or care for those impacted.

The plight of prisoners in California has received extensive coverage since a class action lawsuit alleged bad medical care behind bars violated the U.S. Constitution. In Virginia, however, there has been little reporting on the quality of health care for about 31,000 people in state prisons.

In 2010, when I started researching the health effects of climate change for my book, Fevered, it seemed like this looming threat wasn’t on the nation’s radar screens. I was pessimistic that changes could be made in time to avert catastrophe. But as I drilled down, I was pleasantly surprised to disc

Pennsylvania has seen an increasing number of refugees settling in the state. I will report on efforts to deal with health issues in this community, including the high rates of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

America is aging. Montana is aging faster. Projections indicate 25 percent of the country will be over 65 years old by 2050. Montana is set to hit that mark two decades sooner.

Looking at kids being part of protests against deportations is something that could and should break anyone’s heart. I believe that no child should be in the position of suffering an unexpected separation from their parents because of immigration laws. But as we know, that situation happens daily.

Parents whose children regularly play at Magnuson Park in Seattle are concerned about cumulative radiation exposure. Free floating radium could quickly expose a child who frequents the park to the maximum yearly limit of 500 millirems above background levels.

Studies have linked loneliness and social isolation to an array of potentially devastating health challenges, including Alzheimer’s and other neurologically degenerative conditions, diabetes, overweight and obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Texas is fertile ground for debate on women’s health issues, as the national attention on state Sen. Wendy Davis’s recent filibuster of controversial regulations revealed. What's ahead for family planning services in the state and the women who depend on the programs?