Public health & disease

From disease eradication efforts to advances in vaccination and maternal health, this archive tracks real progress in public health. Stories here focus on what’s working — policies, interventions, and research that are improving and extending lives around the world.

Water falling on hand, for article on clean water access

Nearly a billion people gained clean water and 1.2 billion gained sanitation since 2015

By / / Good News For Humankind

Clean water access for nearly a billion people and sanitation for 1.2 billion are among the headline achievements of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals decade — part of a broader surge that also includes a 30 percent drop in new HIV infections and internet access nearly doubling. These gains reflect what sustained international cooperation and targeted investment can actually deliver. Yet only 36 percent of trackable SDG targets are on or near schedule, and gender equality goals remain entirely off track. The window to finish what this decade started is still open — but narrowing fast.

Infant foot, for article on infant mortality rate, for article on India infant mortality rate

India cuts infant mortality by 20% in five years to its lowest rate on record

By / / Good News For Humankind

India’s infant mortality progress represents one of the most significant public health achievements in the developing world right now. A dramatic rise in hospital births — from 83% to more than 95% of all deliveries between 2019 and 2024 — is the clearest engine behind the gains, giving newborns immediate access to trained staff. Yet states like Chhattisgarh reveal that access alone isn’t enough, as the hardest remaining work centers on neonatal care quality in those critical first weeks of life. When frontline healthcare reaches the most vulnerable, the whole world gets closer to the goal.

Filling vaccine syringe, for article on HPV vaccine

England records zero cervical cancer deaths in young women, crediting HPV vaccine

By / / Good News For Humankind

HPV vaccination is proving it can do something remarkable: wipe out a cancer entirely in a generation. England’s school-based program, now nearly two decades old, has driven cervical cancer deaths to zero among women in their early twenties — a cohort where dozens of deaths would otherwise have been expected. Researchers say this is only the beginning, with far greater impact ahead as vaccinated generations age. It’s a powerful reminder that a single vaccine, delivered early enough, can make a whole category of suffering disappear — and that other countries have a clear, proven path to follow.

Person giving blood, for article on blood donation ban

Canada removes ban on blood donations from gay men

By / / Good News For Humankind

Canada’s shift to behaviour-based blood donation screening closes a 30-year chapter in which gay and bisexual men were turned away not because of anything they did, but because of who they are. Starting September 30, 2022, donors will be assessed on individual risk behaviours — the same standard applied to everyone else. More than eight countries, including the U.K., France, and Brazil, have already made similar moves, signalling a global reckoning with policies that lagged far behind the science. This is what it looks like when health systems finally catch up to both the evidence and human dignity.

Stethoscope on top of a stock of hundred dollar bills, for article on medical debt cancellation, for article on medical debt cancellation, for article on medical debt cancellation

Connecticut has erased $513 million in medical debt for 250,000 residents since 2024

By / / Good News For Humankind

Medical debt relief is reaching Connecticut residents automatically — no application, no paperwork, just a letter confirming the debt is gone. The state partnered with a nonprofit that purchases debt portfolios at steep discounts, meaning every $6.5 million in public funding has erased roughly $100 in debt for every dollar spent. Relief flows automatically to residents earning under 400% of the federal poverty level, or whose medical debt exceeds 5% of their annual income. Because medical debt falls hardest on people already facing barriers to care, this model — now spreading across multiple states — points toward something genuinely replicable.

Someone holding a Chilean flag, for article on leprosy elimination

Chile becomes the first country in the Americas to eliminate leprosy, WHO verifies

By / / Good News For Humankind

After more than three decades without a locally acquired case, Chile has become just the second country in the world — after Jordan — to be officially verified by the World Health Organization as having eliminated leprosy.
The verification, announced jointly by WHO and the Pan American Health Organization, marks the end of a long arc. Chile’s last locally acquired case was reported in 1993, originating on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), where the disease first arrived in the late 19th century. The win came from decades of patient work: ongoing surveillance, free multidrug treatment provided through PAHO since 1995, trained clinicians, and care that prioritized dignity alongside diagnosis.
Globally, leprosy still affects more than 200,000 people a year, mostly in tropical regions, and WHO has urged Chile to keep its surveillance sharp in case the disease ever returns. But for now, an ancient illness has been pushed to the margins of one country’s medical history — and a model has been built for others to follow.

New York City park, for article on urban forest plan

New York City’s first urban forest plan targets its hottest, least-shaded blocks

By / / Good News For Humankind

New York City’s first Urban Forest Plan aims to grow tree canopy from 23.4% to 30% of the city’s surface by 2040, with a focus on neighborhoods that have been left in the sun for too long. Right now, environmental justice communities sit under about 19% canopy cover, while wealthier areas enjoy 26% — a gap you can feel on a hot summer afternoon. The plan protects existing trees, expands planting on streets and private land, and trains residents, including NYCHA tenants, to care for the urban forest. It’s a hopeful reminder that shade, cooler air, and cleaner streets are infrastructure every neighborhood deserves.

Depiction of DNA, for article on gene therapy for inherited deafness

U.S. FDA approves first-ever gene therapy for inherited deafness, free to patients

By / / Good News For Humankind

Gene therapy can now restore hearing to children born deaf — and Regeneron is giving it away free to U.S. families.
In a trial of 20 children with rare OTOF mutations, 16 gained meaningful hearing within six months, and five regained normal hearing, including the ability to hear whispers. Instead of charging the millions per child that’s common for rare-disease therapies, Regeneron chose a different path. Beyond the families it directly helps, the decision hints at a quietly radical idea: that breakthrough medicine for rare conditions doesn’t have to come with a breathtaking price tag. Called Otarmeni, the one-time treatment uses two harmless viruses to deliver working copies of the OTOF gene deep into the inner ear, restoring otoferlin, the protein the cochlea needs to turn sound into signals the brain can read. Its maker, Regeneron, says it will offer the therapy free to patients in the U.S. Doctors who ran the trial described children responding to their parents’ voices, and to music, for the first time.
This particular genetic form of deafness is rare, affecting roughly 50 babies born in the U.S. each year. But researchers believe the breakthrough cracks open the door to gene therapies for many other inherited conditions worldwide.

Finger prick insulin injection, for article on once-weekly insulin

Once-weekly insulin wins U.S. approval, cutting 365 injections a year to 52

By / / Good News For Humankind

Once-weekly insulin just became reality in the U.S., dropping the routine for many adults with type 2 diabetes from 365 shots a year to about 52. The FDA approved Awiqli after four phase 3 trials, covering 2,680 adults, found it matched or outperformed daily basal insulin in lowering blood glucose. For people already taking a weekly GLP-1 medication, pairing the two could mean far fewer injection days and one less thing to remember. Doctors are urging thoughtful, individualized use, especially around hypoglycemia risk and affordability. Still, with more than 500 million adults living with diabetes worldwide, treatments that make daily life easier are a quietly powerful step forward for global health.

Cancer patient reading a book, for article on pre-surgery immunotherapy

Bowel cancer patients see zero relapses three years after new immunotherapy

By / / Good News For Humankind

Bowel cancer patients in a small U.K. trial saw zero relapses nearly three years after receiving immunotherapy before surgery — a striking result for all 32 participants, even those who still had traces of cancer after treatment. By comparison, the standard path of surgery followed by chemotherapy sees roughly one in four patients relapse within three years. The trial focused on people with a specific genetic profile that makes tumors more visible to the immune system, sparing them months of post-surgery chemo. One participant described the cancer “melting away” before his operation. If larger trials confirm the approach, it could reshape how a meaningful slice of bowel cancer cases are treated worldwide.