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Treating snail fever and swollen bellies with prawns

Amit Savaia (left), went to Africa for three months to volunteer after finishing his first degree in science. With four other Israeli students from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, he helped build a computer platform to connect African farmers with their neighbors. What tugged at his heartstrings, though, was the problem of schistosomiasis, the […]

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Obamacare: Amman, Jordan Style

Green Prophets burn lots of calories trying to make the planet a better place, but you can’t do much do-gooding if you’re dead. I’ll share a day in my week as a cautionary tale (and offer a peek into Amman’s excellent, and sometimes culturally surreal, medical system). 

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Jordan Offers Cord Blood Bank for Your Newborn’s…Blood

Is it creepy or clever to peddle insurance against baby’s first diseases? Sure, new parents get showered with adorable gifts and well-intended advice, but then the downpour of unsolicited marketing arrives: for baby gear, for college saving plans, and now, in Jordan, for baby blood banking. An unusual building is rising in the desert outside Amman, […]

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World’s First Turkish Womb Transplant Is A Success

“If God allows, we will hold our baby in our arms”. 21-year-old Derya Sert (right) and her doctor Omer Ozkan pose for a photograph before her medical operation Derya Sert is the 21 year old who had the world’s first successful womb transplant at a Turkish hospital. On August 9th, 2011, doctors at Akdeniz University […]

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How Medicines Are Contaminating The Earth

A Tel Aviv University researcher has found that drugs are contaminating the earth in more complex ways than previously thought The dangerous implications of chemicals on our health and the planet entered the public consciousness back in the 1960’s, and was influenced (in part) by campaigners such as Rachel Carson whose groundbreaking book ‘Silent Spring’ […]