Topic: Health and Medicine
With millions of people in India suffering from mental illnesses and only five thousand psychiatrists to treat them, many seek out faith healers to fill in the gap. “Access to care is not there, lack of professionals, lack of medication, lack of awareness, lack of knowledge, so all this leads to only one thing,” says mental health advocate Milesh Hamlai. “You go to the easiest and the most available source of help.” More
“What needed to happen was an engineering company that was willing to work with hospitals, with doctors and nurses to identify what they needed, says Allison Zimmerman of the East Meets West Foundation, “as opposed to developing a solution outside.” More
Phil Jones was told that he had an incurable bone marrow cancer, and that he was too old for the procedure that might save his life. The Moffitt Cancer Center of Florida disagreed, and a perfect donor match appeared in a naval officer who was also an ordained minister. Jones says he “felt God’s hand in the whole thing. I never doubted for a moment that I would make it.” More
“You may come home feeling good, you did your duty, you helped people, you helped keep your unit alive. Then at some point you may start to think,” observes Rita Nakashima Brock of the Soul Repair Center at Brite Divinty School, “who am I that I could do those things? That’s when moral injury kicks in.” More
“It is not that you ever forget what happened to you in war, it is part of your life story. There are no other institutions in our society that I know of except religious institutions that support people over their entire life course.” More
“If there’s any way to avoid getting a blood transfusion, one is better off in general if they can avoid it,” says Dr. Abe Steinberger, a neurosurgeon at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey. More
Programs to vaccinate children here have been hampered by a suspicions about the purpose of the vaccinations, violence from extremists, and critics who say Pakistan has more pressing problems to deal with. More
The rate of HIV infections in America is rising for young gay men. Groups like the Chicago-based Night Ministry are meeting them where they are, offering free testing right out of a van on the street. “Churches have been powerful communities of support for people living with HIV,” says Matt Richards of the University of Chicago Medicine’s community programs. “On the other hand, churches have often been a primary driver of really shaming, stigmatizing, inaccurate messages about HIV.” More
In most states, parents can choose not to vaccinate their children based on a personal or religious objection. It’s a choice that has begun raising concerns about the ethics of refusal and the rising risk of outbreaks. More
Strongly influenced by Catholic teachings, the country of El Salvador now forbids all abortions. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from San Salvador on the consequences for many women when abortion is considered murder, regardless of the circumstances. More
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