The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "world health organization" ...
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Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America
This book documents how the per-capita disability rate due to mental illness has increased six-fold since 1955, when Thorazine was introduced into asylum medicine. The number of adults on government disability has tripled since 1987, the year Prozac was introduced. Finally, the number of children receiving disability due to a serious mental illness has risen 35-fold since 1987.
Tags: medicine; psychiatry; psychiatric medicine; Thorazine; Prozac; disability; mental illness; National Institute of Mental Health; World Health Organization; American Psychiatric Association;
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China Storms Africa
China's drive for resources in Africa has depleted one sub-Saharan country after another is wreaking havoc environmentally and morally as corruption is on the rise and workers are being exploited.
Tags: Congo; Zambia; mining; Eh; pathogen; Mozambique; timber; copper; World Health Organization
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Danger on Your Plate
The Center for Investigative Reporting hired the food analysis lab of the Sarajevo Veterinary School to test food samples purchased in farmers' markets, food shops and stalls to determine food safety. Center reporters found problems with contamination, government inspection, labeling, waste, and NGO's that collect money but "really do little to guard consumers against bad food."
Tags: food safety; Mad Cow Disease; CIN; Linking Agricultural Markets to Producers; LAMP; E.coli; proteus; alfotoxins; bacteria; fungi; food handling; TRACES animal tracking; smuggling; World Health Organization; Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations; EU
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Exporting Faith
The Boston Globe used "a complete raw database of all USAID awards (prime contracts, grants and agreements) obligated from FY 2001 to FY 2005" to investigate the results of President Bush's Executive Orders that "created the faith based initiative and relaxed federal regulations for religious groups using government funds that once sought to protect church-state separations." The series shows that the percentage of USAID awards going to ngo faith based organizations in 2005 was almost doubled the percentage in 2001, from 10.5% to 19.9%. This creates the potential for problems where aid recipients "might forgo assistance because they don't share in the religion of the provider."
Tags: separation of church and state; faith-based initiatives; foreign aid; executive orders; church-state ties; White House Office of Faith and Community Based Initiatives; President Bush; USAID; NGO; Christian evangelicals; Kenya; Angola; Pakistan; Focus on the Family; James Dobb; FOIA; UNICEF; UNDP; State Department; Samaritan's Purse; National Association of Evangelicals; Americans United for Separation of the Church and State; Global Health Outreach; Offfice of Volunteers for Prosperity; Youth for Christ; World Vision; Yellowbook;
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Suddenly Sick
In this series, The Seattle Times revealed their findings from an investigation into the medical world. Among other things, they found that: "Pharmaceutical firms have commandeered the process by which diseases are defined." They reported that the World Health Organization and the U.S. Institutes of Health, among others, receive money from drug companies to promote the agendas of those companies. They also found that "some diseases have been radically redefined without a strong basis in medical evidence."
Tags: medicine; doctors; physicians; medical industry; hospitals; health; pharmaceutical; WHO; NIH; National Institute of Health
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Pandemic
This investigation examined the outbreak of avian flu in Vietnam and surveyed Canadian and World Health Organization preparations for a bird flu pandemic. The story used hidden cameras to expose the Vietnamese government's failure to end unsanitary methods of slaughtering birds; this failure keeps alive the world's most significant "hot zone" for bird flu.
Tags: disease; WHO; Vietnam; bird flu; avian flu; influenza; H5N1; pandemic; outbreak; public health; vaccine; Canada
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Clear and present danger
The Washington Post Magazine describes the disastrous epidemics that can ensue, if smallpox is ever used as a biological weapon. The story reveals that smallpox is known as a highly contageous ancient scourge, which "has killed countless millions." The article focuses on the expert knowledge of Ken Alibek, former second-in-command manager of Biopreparat, the Soviet Union's vast biological weapons program. "Bioterrrism experts now believe the smallox virus exists in clandestine biowarfare laboratories in at least three, and possibly more, countries," the magazine reports. The article depicts the symptoms of the deadly disease, and warns about the unbelievable speed that infection can spread with.
Tags: Biopreparat; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; World Health Organization; defense; research; Russia; Iraq; North Korea; variola; immunization; pox; epidemics
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Global Apartheid
The Nation looks at the AIDS pandemic fueled by unequal access to medical care, and by social and economic conditions. The article reveals that Bush administration and the corporate interests of the giant American pharmaceutical companies prevents Africans from receiving lifesaving AIDS treatment. The author points out that African countries are "forced to give priority to paying illegitimate foreign debts over making investment in public health."
Tags: HIV; AIDS; patents; international political economy; politics; United Nations; pharmaceuticals; racism; World Health Organization
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Tiny Particles, Big Dilemma
Business Week looks at the Environmental Protection Agency pollution standards that set limits on "microscopic particles floating in the air that come from combustion of fuels" and will go into effect in about 2007. The story finds that officials' expectations that the rules will prevent 15,000 premature deaths a year may be lacking sound scientific support. The report cites studies that reveal clear link between air pollution and mortality. It also points to opposing analyses, which usually appear "where industry leaders claim the standards would cost hundreds of billions of dollars." "The fine-particle debate illustrates the core conundrum of regulation - how to make sound public policy amid uncertainty," reports Business Week.
Tags: Environmental Protection Agency; American Cancer Society; World Health Organization; death rate; research; science; regulation
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The Catalyst: Behind Cipla's Offer Of Cheap AIDS Drugs: Potent Mix of Motives
The Wall Street Journal looks at the role of Cipla Ltd., an Indian pharmaceuticals company, in the "extraordinary price war for supplying the lifesaving medicines to Africa and developing nations elsewhere." The story reveals that Cipla has offered "to sell a triple combination of "antiretroviral" AIDS drugs to the international aid group Doctors Without Borders at less than $1 a day per patient..." The reporter finds that even though "multinational pharmaceuticals companies dismiss Cipla and its peers as "patent" pirates," the smaller rivals are "transforming the debate over how to provide critical medicines to poor nations."
Tags: United Nations; World Health Organization; AIDS; HIV; drugs; pharmaceuticals; patents; Bombay; doctors; World Health Assembly; international trade