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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An international team of disease detectives are in China to investigate an outbreak of a new strain of bird flu, H7N9. The biggest puzzle right now is where these infections are coming from, as testing poultry has turned up very few infected birds. -
Many injured patients remain in intensive care and in critical condition, which means their condition could still tip toward recovery or death.
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These days hospitals drill for mass casualty disasters like the explosions at Monday's Boston Marathon. But when it happened for real, the first response was disbelief. Then the victims began arriving. Doctors say they were confronted with the kinds of IED injuries that U.S. troops have gotten in Iraq and Afghanistan. -
"The top priority is diagnosis — the capability to be able to pick up this virus, should it emerge outside of China," says virologist John McCauley. Flu researchers are getting started on creating a vaccine, but there are still many unknowns. -
Sixteen cases of a new flu in China have touched off a major effort to determine what kind of threat it might be. Flu experts want to know where the H7N9 virus is coming from and how it gets around. -
India's Supreme Court says drug maker Novartis can't hold onto its patent for the pricey cancer drug Gleevec simply by tweaking its chemical formula. That means generic drug makers can keep making a form of the drug at a tenth of Novartis's price. Consumer advocates call it a major advance for access to generic drugs. The drug industry says it will chill companies' willingness to produce innovative products.
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A study found that 1 in 5 adults ages 20 to 55 who survive strokes will die within 20 years of the event — a rate much higher than doctors expected. The findings mean doctors need to pay a lot more attention to younger stroke survivors. -
Because dust, mold and pests can trigger asthma attacks, addressing these triggers in the home can keep kids from winding up in the hospital. In the past seven years, the Community Asthma Initiative in Boston has counseled more than a thousand families on how to prevent attacks. -
Women who took aspirin at least a couple of times a week for five years or more cut their risk of melanoma by 30 percent. The new study adds to the mounting pile of research suggesting that cheap, common aspirin lowers the risk of many cancers, including colon, breast, esophagus, stomach, prostate, bladder and ovarian cancer. -
Scientists say a Mississippi child has been cured of HIV. The research findings, released Sunday, could help cure other HIV-infected newborns.
