
Jason Beaubien
Jason Beaubien is NPR's Global Health and Development Correspondent on the Science Desk.
In this role, he reports on a range of issues across the world. He's covered the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, mass cataract surgeries in Ethiopia, abortion in El Salvador, poisonous gold mines in Nigeria, drug-resistant malaria in Myanmar and tuberculosis in Tajikistan. He was part of a team of reporters at NPR that won a Peabody Award in 2015 for their extensive coverage of the West Africa Ebola outbreak. His current beat also examines development issues including why Niger has the highest birth rate in the world, can private schools serve some of the poorest kids on the planet and the links between obesity and economic growth.
Prior to becoming the Global Health and Development Correspondent in 2012, Beaubien spent four years based in Mexico City covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. In that role, Beaubien filed stories on politics in Cuba, the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the FMLN victory in El Salvador, the world's richest man and Mexico's brutal drug war.
For his first multi-part series as the Mexico City correspondent, Beaubien drove the length of the U.S./Mexico border making a point to touch his toes in both oceans. The stories chronicled the economic, social and political changes along the violent frontier.
In 2002, Beaubien joined NPR after volunteering to cover a coup attempt in the Ivory Coast. Over the next four years, Beaubien worked as a foreign correspondent in sub-Saharan Africa, visiting 27 countries on the continent. His reporting ranged from poverty on the world's poorest continent, the HIV in the epicenter of the epidemic, and the all-night a cappella contests in South Africa, to Afro-pop stars in Nigeria and a trial of white mercenaries in Equatorial Guinea.
During this time, he covered the famines and wars of Africa, as well as inspiring preachers and Nobel laureates. Beaubien was one of the first journalists to report on the huge exodus of people out of Sudan's Darfur region into Chad, as villagers fled some of the initial attacks by the Janjawid. He reported extensively on the steady deterioration of Zimbabwe and still has a collection of worthless Zimbabwean currency.
In 2006, Beaubien was awarded a Knight-Wallace fellowship at the University of Michigan to study the relationship between the developed and the developing world.
Beaubien grew up in Maine, started his radio career as an intern at NPR Member Station KQED in San Francisco and worked at WBUR in Boston before joining NPR.
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The World Health Organization is celebrating the eradication of another strain of the polio virus. Yet major challenges remain in the global effort to get rid of the disease.
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The worm causes a debilitating intestinal disease called schistosomiasis. And the parasite is spreading rapidly because of an economic boom along the shores of East Africa's Lake Malawi.
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The phony vaccination programs were used in its spy operations abroad. The decision comes after leaders from U.S. public health schools brought the practice to light.
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A second case of the new Middle East respiratory syndrome has shown up in the U.S. The virus has been spreading through Saudi hospitals. Health officials expect more cases to appear here.
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A malaria patient can carry different parasites that respond differently to drugs. Now there's a way to profile the parasites, which could someday lead to more tailored treatments.
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The paralyzing virus had seemed on the verge of disappearing. But this year cases are being reported in 10 countries. The World Health Organization has responded with strict vaccination rules.
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The World Health Organization says that recent polio outbreaks constitute a world health emergency. It's asking polio hot spots to require travelers leaving those countries show proof of vaccination.
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One community has lost so many men that it's now called the Island of Widows. Researchers are struggling to figure out the cause of the disease. Some suspect a popular herbicide.
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Middle East Respiratory Syndrome has a fatality rate of about 30 percent. An uptick in new cases in Saudi Arabia has health specialists concerned that the virus could spread outside the region.
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A polio outbreak in Cameroon has spread to Equatorial Guinea and threatens to move throughout Central Africa. This story originally aired on Morning Edition on April 17, 2014.