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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Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration approved a class of drugs that can cure most hepatitis C infections. That's great news for the more than 3 million Americans infected. But the high cost — $84,000 per course of treatment — means some patients could miss out. -
The Obama administration says the HealthCare.gov experience is getting better, but what's it really like? We asked Doug Normington of Madison, Wis., to let us peek over his shoulder as he tries to buy health insurance through the federal exchange. After many tries, success. -
Earlier efforts to use gene therapy to treat a rare immune disorder in young children failed when some of the children got leukemia. Scientists say they think they may have figured it out, with eight children now living normal toddler lives. -
The only person known to have been cured of AIDS got a bone marrow transplant, so when two AIDS patients in Boston appeared to be free of the virus after transplants, scientists hoped they were cured, too. But the HIV virus has returned in both. -
The first in a new class of drugs that can cure the viral infection that is the leading cause of liver failure and liver cancer is poised for a marketing green light from the Food and Drug Administration. More than 3 million Americans have hepatitis C, but most don't know it. -
The administration is pledging $100 million toward a project to stop HIV infections once and for all. There's growing optimism among scientists that it may be possible to get patients' immune systems to control HIV without drugs, or even to eliminate the virus from the cells of infected people someday. -
Updated just last week by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, the new guidelines are based on old data, some heart doctors say, and may overestimate the real risk of heart attack and stroke. That could result in overtreatment with cholesterol-lowering drugs. -
New cholesterol guidelines are out, and the bottom line is millions more Americans will be getting recommendations that they should be taking a cholesterol-lowering pill every day. The new guidance, from the nation's two leading groups of heart specialists, is a big departure from the advice Americans have been getting for decades to get their cholesterol levels down to a certain number. Instead, the emphasis is on whether you fit into one of four risk groups.
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For decades, knowing your cholesterol number was the first step in preventing heart disease and stroke. Heart specialists would shift away from specific cholesterol targets under new guidelines. A risk-based approach tailored to each patient would become the new norm. -
As horrific as Haiyan has been, the disaster likely won't reach the same level of death and injury as the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 or Haiti's 2010 quake, disaster specialists say. Better communication systems in the disaster area are one reason why.
