Richard Knox
Since he joined NPR in 2000, Knox has covered a broad range of issues and events in public health, medicine, and science. His reports can be heard on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Talk of the Nation, and newscasts.
Among other things, Knox's NPR reports have examined the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa, North America, and the Caribbean; anthrax terrorism; smallpox and other bioterrorism preparedness issues; the rising cost of medical care; early detection of lung cancer; community caregiving; music and the brain; and the SARS epidemic.
Before joining NPR, Knox covered medicine and health for The Boston Globe. His award-winning 1995 articles on medical errors are considered landmarks in the national movement to prevent medical mistakes. Knox is a graduate of the University of Illinois and Columbia University. He has held yearlong fellowships at Stanford and Harvard Universities, and is the author of a 1993 book on Germany's health care system.
He and his wife Jean, an editor, live in Boston. They have two daughters.
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Influenza is especially intense this year, and people are flooding into hospitals and doctors' offices. But the flu is just one of a triple whammy of respiratory viruses — plus the nasty norovirus — that are making lots of people sick. -
On the third anniversary of Haiti's devastating earthquake, the country is laying plans to rid itself of the cholera epidemic that followed in its wake. Most scientists now think Nepalese soldiers unwittingly spread the pathogen in Haiti when they joined a United Nations peacekeeping force. -
Americans are sicker and die sooner than their counterparts in comparable nations. No single cause can account for the difference, but improving medical care will only help so much, as disparities can be traced to dietary choices, drugs and alcohol, guns, and even cars. -
The 2012 mammography debate was a continuation of a controversy touched off three years ago when a government task force said women under 50 don't need regular mammograms. And one recent analysis found that regular screenings haven't reduced the rate of advanced breast cancers. -
HIV has been declining in many parts of the world over the past decade. Today the U.S. unveiled an ambitious plan to stop most new HIV infections around the world. But some health leaders question whether their goals are realistic, especially with impending budget cuts. -
The last three decades have seen a dramatic increase in early-stage, but not late-stage, breast cancers, as mammography has become routine. Some researchers are concerned that women are being treated for cancers that would never turn deadly. -
An experimental vaccine for malaria reduces infants' risk of the disease by about a third. That's less than researchers had hoped for, given the vaccine's effectiveness in toddlers, but doctors say it's enough to prevent many high fevers, seizures and deaths in a lot of African children. -
Little is known about how to diagnose and treat this kind of meningitis, which was caused by a tainted drug. And the investigation into how the drug contamination occurred is revealing a spectacular failure of consumer protection.
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They found 40 or so key differences — all potential targets for cleverly designed drugs. But the researchers caution that their study is a long way from the outmoded dream of a silver bullet that would knock out breast cancer – or any other kind. The report was published in the journal Nature. -
The Swedish team transplanted uteruses from two women in their 50s to their daughters, and an Indiana group is recruiting women willing to undergo womb transplants in this country. It's the latest frontier in a field launched in 1954 with a successful kidney transplant. But one expert cautions against premature enthusiasm.
