Health

The Associated Press has found that the decision by the United States to slash its foreign aid funding last year has increased pregnancy complications and deaths in Nepal. The AP interviewed health workers, government officials, aid workers and families who said cuts to programs that ensured uneducated, impoverished pregnant women got proper nutrition and prenatal care have led to more babies and pregnant women dying. The U.S. State Department says it still supports programs in Nepal aimed at improving maternal and child health.

Anne Hathaway describes her approach to preparing for her third baby while promoting her string of new films. Her latest, “The End of Oak Street,” hits U.S. theaters Aug. 14. (Aug. 10)

A defense lawyer for Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother who killed her three children in 2023, is questioning her psychiatrist’s expertise, prescribing decisions and overall treatment.

Getting older can make living independently more challenging. But a lab in Australia is showcasing all kinds of tech that can help with everyday tasks so that people can stay in their own homes for longer.

The Northern Territory has the highest rates of lung cancer and smoking-related illness in Australia. For the first time, a mobile lung screening unit will travel to 22 remote communities, bringing specialist care closer to those who need it most.

Singer Carly Simon has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and was recently treated for skin cancer, the singer shared in a statement provided to The Associated Press. (July 27)

An Australian woman has given birth to identical quadruplet girls, which gynecologists described as incredibly rare. Jenitar Sau Na’amoana, who is 34 years old and already has four children, delivered the babies last week at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in Queensland state.

ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, hasn’t stopped one artist in Tokyo from taking to the stage to perform with eye movements, AI and brain signals. Masatane Muto, also known as EYE VDJ MASA, uses those signals to control music, visuals, robotic arms and an AI-synthesised voice. (AP video and production by Mayuko Ono)

AI could help COPD patients check for flare-ups from home. It analyzes a patient’s voice to determine if the incurable lung condition is about to become worse.

A blood test may predict the start of Alzheimer’s symptoms years in advance and doctors say it could become a game changer. The study shows a blood test can help identify healthy people at high risk for Alzheimer’s disease and how far their disease has progressed.

ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, hasn’t stopped one artist in Tokyo from taking to the stage to perform with eye movements, AI and brain signals. Masatane Muto, also known as EYE VDJ MASA, uses those signals to control music, visuals, robotic arms and an AI-synthesised voice. He performed at MOVE Fes., a music and technology event he founded to raise awareness of ALS and show how people living with the disease can keep creating. (AP video shot by: Mayuko Ono)

After two surgeries and several rounds of radiation therapy over the past four years to treat a tumor, Irisleydis Tristá has spent the past seven months unable to get a CT scan to determine whether the cancer has grown or spread. Cuba’s once-vaunted system of free universal healthcare has deteriorated sharply. The crisis, say analysts, has been compounded by fuel shortages they attribute to tightened U.S. sanctions on the island’s energy sector, worsening an economy that had already been struggling for years. (AP Video shot by Ariel Fernández and Milexsy Durán)

Vermont is set to become the first U.S. state to ban paraquat, a commonly used herbicide that some experts say is linked to Parkinson’s disease. (AP video by Amanda Swinhart)

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other parts of Africa, some women are having baby after baby under cultural pressure to produce a male heir, even risking their health. Africa has the world’s fastest-growing population, but many births occur in conditions that women around the world would find challenging. (AP video shot by Justin Kabumba)

Since the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, pregnant women have begun to avoid hospitals for fear of becoming infected or being placed in quarantine. At the Bénédicte Clinic, the number of women attending antenatal appointments has fallen sharply, from 60 to around 10 per month, according to Dr Sonny Mwembo, medical director of the Bénédicte Clinic of Bunia.

Growing up witnessing the devastating effects of HIV in her family and community in South Africa pushed Olwam Plaatjie to start using preventive HIV medications three years ago. The 19-year-old is one of thousands of South Africans who signed up for clinical trials of lenacapavir, a highly effective, twice-yearly injectable prevention drug that addresses the drawbacks of daily oral prevention pills. (AP Video shot by Kayleen Morgan)

Donkeys are helping psychiatric patients at a hospital in France. A unique therapy programme uses the animals to help people with mental health conditions recover. (AP video shot by: Alex Turnbull)

In remote communities near the Sudan-Central African Republic border, pregnant women who fled Sudan’s war are struggling to access health care as clinics close and aid funding dries up. The U.N. warns the cuts could leave more women vulnerable to preventable deaths during pregnancy and childbirth.

Pope Leo XIV on Saturday greeted one by one families who lost loved ones to illegal toxic dumping in an area near Naples, as many paused to share photographs and other mementos of children and young people who have died or are battling cancer — illnesses tied to a multibillion-dollar criminal racket run by the mafia. (AP Video: Silvia Stellacci)

Scientists are supercharging patients’ own immune cells to try to fight HIV without today’s drugs. A small study is giving a hint that CAR-T cell therapy, already used for some cancers, might eventually work for HIV. (AP video: Haven Daley; Production: Shelby Lum)

A rodent-borne illness is suspected of causing an outbreak aboard a cruise ship that has killed three people and sickened others. (AP Video shot by Susan Montoya Bryan, Production by Ao Gao)

After their bus driver blacked out during an asthma attack, five Mississippi middle schoolers worked together to stop the bus, call for help and give their bus driver her medication.

A global team of doctors and researchers are using AI to better improve the treatment and survival rates of women with ovarian cancer. The AI will integrate tumor samples, clinical records, genetic information and lifestyle factors from thousands of patients across international research institutions. (AP Video: Tom Rayner)

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, on Thursday visited a young people’s mental health organisation, Batyr, at Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology.

President Donald Trump says White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer but will continue working during her treatment.

A Kenyan woman who survived breast cancer is knitting prostheses and training others to make them in a country where silicone ones are expensive. Women say the affordable prostheses are a relief and a source of dignity. One woman recalled staying indoors after her mastectomy “because I didn’t want people to label me as the ‘woman with one breast’.” Breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer among women in Kenya, where 40% of the population lives below the poverty line. Reconstructive surgery is out of reach for many and is not covered by the national health insurance system.

A long-acting HIV drug arrives in Zimbabwe for some at highest risk

In Cuba, the healthcare system is universal and free and although the model was historically praised for its positive health indicators for a small country - such as low infant mortality and increased life expectancy - the economic crisis that broke out five years ago in the wake of the pandemic, along with increased US sanctions, has led to a gradual deterioration of the sector. Now, fear of a total collapse is growing as the energy blockade imposed by President Donald Trump disrupts all basic services on the island. (AP Video by Milexsy Duran)

The Trump administration’s revocation of a scientific finding that climate change is a danger to public health is likely to affect communities of color the most, public health experts say.

Eric Dane, the actor known for “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Euphoria,” has died at 53 from ALS. He’d become an advocate for awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known also as Lou Gehrig’s disease, after announcing his diagnosis in April 2025. (Feb 19)