Nurith Aizenman

He was an accountant for Big Oil. Then came the cyclone of 1970. Sir Fazle Hasan Abed found a new calling — and came up with an idea that could be key to ending extreme poverty.

Researchers drop in. They take specimens. And they head home and don't share. That's no way to fight an epidemic. Can they do things differently when it comes to Zika?

What happened when teens in a conservative Muslim neighborhood in Kolkata began watching lush, romantic Bollywood films.

Yellow fever is spreading in Angola. Experts are afraid it could spread further in Africa and Asia. This couldn't come at a worse time.

They're simply test tubes, mainly filled with blood and saliva, but to researcher Beatriz Parra Patino, they're a lot more.

To her, each tube represents "a human being." And the blood and saliva may hold the answer to one of the many mysteries about the Zika virus sweeping through her ...

Researchers say Colombia offers a chance to learn more about Zika's possible link to microcephaly. If the country sees a sudden rise in cases as Brazil did, that's stronger evidence of a connection.

Colombia would like to coordinate with Venezuela to fight the virus. That's not happening. Meanwhile, Venezuelans who cross the border may be bringing Zika with them.

Since the fall, Colombia has seen about 100 cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Most of the patients reported they'd had Zika virus. Researchers are trying to figure out what's going on.

The Zika outbreak that began in Brazil has spread north to Colombia, where the city of Cucuta has been hit the hardest. Nearly one out of every five cases in Colombia are in that city.

More than 5,000 pregnant women appear to have fallen sick with the virus. But there are no good tests for the birth defect possibly linked to this disease.

If you're a government official, you don't want to get a call from Cees Klumper's office.

Because there's a good chance what you'll hear is basically this: "Either you send us back the money that was misused in the past, or we'll deduct double the amount from your future grants. ...

It depends on whom you ask. But Venezuela could be the next ground zero for Zika. And government information is in short supply. So are doctors, medicines and even mosquito repellent.

We're in the middle of an El Niño that's already caused weather-related disasters and will last at least several more months. Now for the good news.

The World Health Organization declared West Africa officially Ebola-free on Thursday, but more cases are likely, and scientists say they have a lot of unanswered questions.

What if your friend bragged that she'd just bought a brand of jeans because she'd checked out the company's practices and made sure they were ethical — no child labor, no polluting the environment by the manufacturer.

Maybe you'd thank her for the info, even be inspired to change your ...

Ethiopia is grappling with an epic drought that could lead to famine. Here's why the world isn't stepping up.

All his life, Aniket Sathe has been taught that men rule the world. He lives in India, one of the worst countries for women. Now a new class is changing his attitude.

How do you get boys to treat girls as their equals?

The question is an urgent one in India – where women face some of the world's highest rates of sexual violence and domestic abuse. Many groups are trying to combat the problem with programs to empower girls and women. ...

The United States spends more on international aid than any other nation — more than $32 billion a year. Yet it has come in near the bottom of a newly released ranking that scores the wealthiest nations according to how much they help the world's poorest people.

Perhaps not surprisingly, ...

What if you could never get a good night's rest? Some low-income people around the world face that challenge. A team of researchers is investigating whether sleep deprivation keeps some in poverty. (This piece originally aired on All Things Considered on Dec. 2, 2015.)