Malawi has begun a mass distribution of mosquito nets, aiming to reach almost half the country’s population of 18 million people. Health authorities say the campaign is aimed at reducing the spread of malaria, which in Malawi currently accounts for 36% of all hospital outpatients and 15% of hospital admissions. The Global Fund-supported campaign was announced during the commemoration of Southern Africa Development Community Malaria Day November 6 and is expected to be rolled out nationally November 15. Khumbize Kandodo-Chiponda, Malawi’s minister of health, says the intervention is a response …

The idea was striking in its ambition: African countries aimed to plant trees in a more than 8,000 kilometer-line spanning the entire continent, creating a natural barrier to hold back the Sahara Desert as climate change swept the sands south. The project called the Great Green Wall began in 2007 with a vision for the trees to extend like a belt across the vast Sahel region, from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east, by 2030. But as temperatures rose and rainfall diminished, millions of the planted trees …

Medicare’s “Part B” outpatient premium will jump by $21.60 a month in 2022, one of the largest increases ever. Officials said Friday a new Alzheimer’s drug is responsible for about half of that. The increase guarantees that health care will gobble up a big chunk of the recently announced Social Security cost-of-living allowance, a boost that had worked out to $92 a month for the average retired worker, intended to help cover rising prices for gas and food that are pinching seniors. Medicare officials told reporters on Friday that about …

In Kansas City, Kansas, educators are opening an after-school mental health clinic staffed with school counselors and social workers. Schools in Paterson, New Jersey, have set up social emotional learning teams to identify students dealing with crises. Chicago is staffing up “care teams” with the mission of helping struggling students on its 500-plus campuses. With a windfall of federal coronavirus relief money at hand, schools across the U.S. are using portions to quickly expand their capacity to address students’ struggles with mental health. While school districts have broad latitude on …

Africa is on the front line of climate change. Nowhere is this more evident than the Lake Chad Basin, which covers almost 8% of the continent and supports tens of millions of people. The United Nations says it has shrunk by 90% since the 1960s because of drought. The resulting competition for resources has caused poverty and conflict. Over 10 million people are dependent on humanitarian assistance. Oladosu Adenike, 27, has witnessed Lake Chad’s tragic transformation firsthand. She is a prominent campaigner on climate change in Africa and started the …

A businessman who traveled to space with William Shatner last month was killed along with another person when the small plane they were in crashed in a wooded area of northern New Jersey, state police said. The space tourist, Glen M. de Vries, 49, of New York City, and Thomas P. Fischer, 54, of Hopatcong, were aboard the single-engine Cessna 172 that went down Thursday.  De Vries was an instrument-rated private pilot, and Fischer owned a flight school. Authorities have not said who was piloting the small plane.  The plane …