Now Playing

Loading streams...

NPR News

Pages

Middle East
4:04 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Pakistani Girl Shot By Taliban Transported To U.K.

Share
E-mail
By

Originally published on Mon October 15, 2012 9:12 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.

In recent days, the name Malala has reverberated around the world. She's the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban. She was targeted because she blogged about what life is like for a child living under Islamist militant rule and she publicly campaigning against Islamist' ban on girls' education.

Read more
Europe
4:03 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Scotland To Vote On Independence From U.K.

Share
E-mail
By editor

Originally published on Mon October 15, 2012 5:46 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Scotland took a step towards independence today, at least a step towards a vote on the subject. British Prime Minister David Cameron met in Edinburgh with the head of the semiautonomous Scottish government. And together, they signed off on an independence referendum to be held in two years.

But as Vicki Barker reports, it's not clear people in Scotland want independence.

VICKI BARKER, BYLINE: The two men smiled as they exchange copies of the agreement for each other to sign.

ALEX SALMOND: Here, there you go.

Read more
'Another Thing': Test Your Clever Skills
3:55 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

'Another Thing' Wraps With Songs Of Housework Woe

Credit iStockphoto.com
Share
E-mail
By editor

Originally published on Mon October 15, 2012 5:46 pm

Each week, All Things Considered and Lenore Skenazy, author of the book and blog Free-Range Kids, have brought you "Another Thing," an on-air puzzle to test your cleverness skills. The contest wraps up this week with one final installment of listener responses.

Last week's challenge: A Norwegian study found that couples who split chores equally are more likely to divorce. Come up with the name of a country song about a chore-splitting couple.

Read more
The Two-Way
3:51 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Bosnia Begins Work On First Census Since Its Bloody Civil War

Credit Marko Drobnjakovic / AP
July 11, 2012: A woman cried next to the coffin of her relative at the Potocari memorial complex near Srebrenica. More than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were executed there in July 1995. It was the worst massacre in Europe since World War II.
Share
E-mail
By editor

Population censuses aren't normally something to get excited over. But for Bosnia, a nation that hasn't counted its own people in over two decades and has its eye on becoming part of the European Union, even a pilot census is of great importance. No formal national count has taken place since before the breakup of Yugoslavia, and the subsequent ethnic conflict that shocked the world.

Today, Bosnia began a two-week test census, targeting around 15,000 people, in order to gauge how prepared it is for an official, nation-wide census in the spring of 2013.

Read more
Shots - Health News
3:26 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Wiping Out Polio: How The U.S. Snuffed Out A Killer

Next imagePrevious image
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
On April 12, 1955, Dr. Jonas Salk and his research team at the University of Pittsburgh released the first successful vaccine for polio. In 1979, the U.S. reported its last case of the paralyzing virus.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital Archive.
Many people infected with polio don't show any symptoms. Some become temporarily paralyzed; for others, it's permanent. In 1952, the polio epidemic reached a peak in the U.S.: almost 58,000 reported cases and more than 3,000 deaths.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital Archive.
Before the polio vaccine was developed, doctors tried to treat patients with ultraviolet light, which was known to inactivate the virus in the lab.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
While receiving a polio vaccine, Cheryl Halpin watches Salk inoculate another child on television.
Credit AP
The vast majority of polio victims are children, but it can also strike adults. Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted polio in 1921 at age 39. Here, two men lift a little girl in a wheelchair so that Roosevelt can greet her from his vehicle during his first presidential campaign.
Credit AP
Many celebrities and actresses helped to promote the fight against polio. In this image from 1953, the British actress Margaret Lockwood speaks with a young polio survivor, 4-year-old Mary Burton, as they buy stamps to support polio research and treatment.
Credit AP
Patricia, 6, and Pamela, 5, were stricken with polio in 1948. They were poster children for the March of Dimes' campaign efforts to eradicate infantile paralysis. This poster first appeared in 1952.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
The global health community stepped up its fight against polio in the 1980s. Here, a poster from the Qatari Ministry of Health promotes polio vaccination by foreshadowing the young boy's fate if he doesn't receive the protective drops.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
A poster distributed by French public health officials promotes polio vaccination by representing the shot as a protective umbrella.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
A British postcard promotes the importance of vaccinating against polio.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
A poster from Ecuador shows the "vaccination diploma" children receive after they're inoculated against polio, pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, tuberculosis and measles. Polio was stamped out in the Western Hemisphere in 1991.
Credit Courtesy of the Boston Children's Hospital Archive.
A major roadblock for developing the polio vaccine: growing the virus in the laboratory. Scientist John Enders was the first to overcome this challenge in 1949 — a feat that earned him a Nobel Prize in 1954 and Time magazine's Man of the Year title in 1961. Salk used Enders' technique to create the polio vaccine.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital Archive.
Many polio victims couldn't breathe on their own because of paralysis in their chest muscles. The iron lung — a simple, air-tight chamber that regulates air pressure — kept patients breathing until the paralysis passed. At the peak of the epidemic, rows of iron lung ventilators filled hospital rooms.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital Archive
During the peak of the polio epidemic in the U.S., some hospital wards even had large, room-like iron lungs where multiple children lived.
Credit Courtesy of the Boston Children's Hospital Archive
Many people infected with polio don't show any symptoms. Some become temporarily paralyzed; for others, it's permanent. In 1952, the polio epidemic reached a peak in U.S.: almost 58,000 reported cases and more than 3,000 deaths.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital
Many polio victims couldn't breathe on their own because of paralysis in their chest muscles. The iron lung — a simple, air-tight chamber that regulates air pressure — kept patients breathing until the paralysis passed. At the peak of the epidemic, rows of iron lung ventilators filled hospital rooms.
Share
E-mail
By

Originally published on Wed January 23, 2013 1:55 pm

Sixty years ago, polio was one of the most feared diseases in the U.S.

As the weather warmed up each year, panic over polio intensified. Late summer was dubbed "polio season." Public swimming pools were shut down. Movie theaters urged patrons not to sit too close together to avoid spreading the disease. Insurance companies started selling polio insurance for newborns.

The fear was well grounded. By the 1950s, polio had become one of the most serious communicable diseases among children in the United States.

Read more

Pages