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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Resistant staph infections have captured headlines in recent months, with school outbreaks that have sometimes been fatal. Now, researchers say an even more drug-resistant staph is spreading among gay and bisexual men.
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A new study shows widespread testing for heart problems in young athletes helps prevent sudden cardiac deaths. But some say that screening every young athlete for a rare condition could cause more problems than it solves.
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Merck agrees to pay nearly $5 billion to settle lawsuits from consumers contending the painkiller Vioxx caused heart attacks and strokes. The safety problems of Vioxx and the withdrawal of Vioxx from the market was a watershed event in regulating prescription drugs in the U.S.
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Three scientists will share the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their pioneering work in the fields of "gene targeting" and embryonic stem-cell research. The discoveries, made over the past three decades, laid the groundwork for understanding how genes work.
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In recent years, many big cities have suffered epidemics of fatal heat stroke, and scientists predict more-frequent heat waves. But global warming isn't the only factor. Big cities also create their own heat.
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Against the advice of infectious disease experts, a patient with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis was able to deliberately evade a worldwide no-fly order and travel freely by commercial jet last week around the globe.
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Americans Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering "RNA interference," a way organisms turn off individual genes. The discovery is considered by many scientists to be a breakthrough in modern biology.
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This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to two American researchers, Andrew Fire of Stanford University and Craig Mello of the University of Massachusetts. The pair, who discovered how to selectively silence genes that cause disease, will share the $1.4 million prize.
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At the international AIDS conference in Toronto, experts tell of successes in delivering treatments to the poorest corners of the world. But stresses are emerging: a weak health care system, a lack of drugs for children, and the high cost of therapies for those whose first-line treatment has failed. The most pressing problem is the failure of HIV prevention efforts to expand as fast as treatments have.
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When Congress expanded Medicare to include drug coverage, it ordered the National Institute of Medicine to look at what should be done to minimize medication errors. The agency says medication errors harm at least 1.5 million Americans every year.