My stories: Infectious threats
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From coop to cave: Inside the high-tech hunt for H5N1 and Disease X
Scientists in Cambodia’s vibrant wet markets and vast bat caves to are using revolutionary new disease surveillance tools to track new and existin threats
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Malaysia was on the brink of eliminating malaria – then a new parasite swung out of the jungle
A new malaria parasite, like HIV, comes from monkeys. With thousands already infected, experts fear it could one day spread between humans
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‘We survived the terrifying disease that inspired Contagion – our blood may help to treat it’
Scientists are taking blood from survivors of a 20-year-old outbreak to develop a vaccine for Nipah, which kills up to 70 per cent of people it infects – and inspired the Hollywood blockbuster
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On the brink: Malawi's fight against a crippling parasite
It causes disability worldwide but elephantiasis, which causes grotesquely deforms limbs, could soon be eradicated in the African nation
Women’s health and rights
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A boom in botched surgery is leaving women incontinent
As Nepal’s healthcare industry expands, an alarming trend is escalating: fistula caused by medical malpractice
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‘My husband beat me over and over – I still can’t legally divorce him’
The Philippines is the only place outside the Vatican that bans divorce, trapping thousands in abusive marriages. But change may be coming
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Top WHO scientist suspended amid claims of ‘misogynistic p---ing circle’
Exclusive: Biosecurity expert at the centre of sexual misconduct allegations, some of which stretch back over 20 years
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On the road with the armed ‘motorbike midwives’ delivering Bangkok’s babies
A specialist team of traffic police are bringing vital healthcare to the gridlocked streets of Thailand’s capital
Myanmar
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Inside the rebel hospitals keeping Myanmar’s revolution alive
Exclusive: The Telegraph shadowed doctors risking their lives despite daunting obstacles – from airstrikes to drug shortages and frozen aid
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'We hear cries beneath the rubble, but are powerless to save them'
After a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar, rescuers comb the rubble for survivors bare-handed, let down by their corrupt military leaders
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Three-year-old paralysed by polio as Myanmar’s health system crumbles
Exclusive: A toddler has tested positive for vaccine-derived polio after civil war hits immunisation rates
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Why I left the US Deep South to fight in Myanmar’s brutal civil war
Azad is among a growing number of international combatants in conflict that has claimed thousands of lives
Conflict
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Fifty days in chains: The Thai hostage who survived Hamas
Phonsawan Pinakalo was taken prisoner on October 7. He endured beatings, bombings and solitary confinement – but lived to tell the tale
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The invisible killer haunting Laos 50 years after the Vietnam War
US officials including Kissinger approved a relentless bombing campaign in Laos. The legacy remains deadly in the munitions-strewn country
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Thailand and Cambodia cannot afford this war – but neither is prepared to give an inch
Since simmering tensions over a long-disputed border with Cambodia ignited into open conflict, these troops have been surrounded by the thud of artillery, at the forefront of deadly clashes
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‘We can no longer afford to eat’: Ukraine war pushes millions into starvation
Russia's blockade has 'dealt a serious blow' to an already a perilous situation, pushing food prices to record highs in the Horn of Africa
Climate fallout
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‘They’re killing us slowly’: sandstorms and drought stalk Madagascar
The cost of water has leapt 300 per cent and locals are surviving on cactus plants – is this the future of climate change famine?
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Why the mosquito men of Kent fear a new surge of malaria in Britain
As Europe’s climate changes, the UKHSA are hunting for new and old threats lurking across Britain, including West Nile virus and dengue
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‘First I lost my livestock, then I lost my children’
As Dahir mourns the death of his children, he is also contending with an uncertain future: the severe drought threatens the pastoralist lifestyle in Somaliland, which has sustained his family for generations.
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Why Thai farmers are launching gunpowder propelled homemade rockets
The Bun Bang Fai festival pays homage to the Gods, a reminder to deliver a plentiful monsoon season. That rain has never been needed more
Covid-19
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Chinese authorities scramble to identify cause of mysterious disease outbreak
There were fears that the country was on the verge of a repeat epidemic of SARS, which spread around the world in 2002-03, killing 700 people
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A perfect storm: How did one city lose so many to Covid-19?
Manaus, in Brazil, suffered one of the world’s most devastating outbreaks. Now, epidemiologists want to know why
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Hope among the horror: What now for care homes abandoned to Covid?
Care homes have been on the frontline of the UK’s battle against the pandemic – here’s the devastating impact on one.
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'Trojan horse': bulk of UK vaccine donations to poor countries set to expire in September
Exclusive: The nine million doses may be wasted as countries struggle to ramp up vaccine campaigns
Human rights
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Frozen Christmas: The teenage migrants trapped in Bosnia's bleak forests
As Europe basks in the glow of festive lights, migrants at a refugee camp in Bosnia endure sub-zero temperatures.
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Six years trapped at sea: ‘I was beaten with barbed stingray tails and scalded by boiling water’
A decade after reports of modern slavery in Thailand’s trawler fleet first emerged, ‘unfinished’ reforms mean fishermen remain abused
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‘I’m proud of Thailand’: Couples to tie the knot in mass weddings as same-sex marriage become legal
After decades of campaigning, the country is the first in southeast Asia to introduce full marriage equality
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‘Now I feel safe’: UK funded project reduces domestic violence in rural Ghana
An innovative scheme to tackle violence against women appears to be working: women in participating villages reported a 50pc fall in physical partner violence
Tuberculosis
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Inside the Filipino jails struggling to contain an ancient killer
As Covid showed, prisons can act as incubators for disease. In the Philippines, where inmates are kept 300 to a cell, a health workers are fighting to curb TB
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The fight to rid Pakistan’s coal pits of diseases that plagued British miners a century ago
Ultra-portable, AI driven x-rays have been used to find undiagnosed TB, as miners inhaling soot in Victorian-era conditions are at high risk
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'My world looks like a TV with no signal after infection stole my sight’
A ‘dream come true’ drug is on the brink of a national rollout in the Philippines, and could transform life for thousands with resistant TB
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Why ‘Fault in Our Stars’ author John Green is obsessed with tuberculosis
From WWI to the Beatles, TB has shaped our past – in a new book, Green argues the disease should no longer be shaping our present
Drug policy
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Anti-cannabis sentiment grows in Thailand a year on from legalisation
The country’s nascent marijuana market is on shaky ground, with some politicians arguing it's had a corrupting influence during the election
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Asia’s Golden Triangle was once the opium capital of the world. Now the drug of choice is meth
The region is now the world’s most active synthetic drug production zone – and authorities are struggling to intercept smugglers
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A legal opioid ‘potion’ is proving a hit with backpackers in Thailand – so I gave it a go
Kratom has gained a cult following among TikTokers and older, wealthier customers alike, but little is known about its long-term effects
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How the Taliban launched the ‘most successful counter-narcotics effort in human history’
Experts are divided on the consequences of the nationwide ban on poppy production
Human-animal conflict
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‘Monkey city’ tattoos and sterilises macaques to end their reign of terror
The animals have been central to Lopburi’s identity and a major attraction for curious tourists, but long-suffering locals are fed up
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‘The tiger had my husband by his throat – I fought to save him with a stick’
As tiger numbers triple in Nepal thanks to conservation, rangers now patrol on elephant-back to stop the man-eaters attacking humans
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‘They kill and play with their victims’ bodies like dolls’: The elephants terrorising Thailand
After years of endangerment, elephant numbers in the wild have surged – with deadly consequences for local communities
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The island fast becoming the ‘crocodile attack capital of the world’
The latest victim of a saltwater crocodile on Bangka Island says a screwdriver saved his life
Pandemic interviews
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Why Tony Blair believes Covid crisis demands a ‘completely different modus operandi’ by policymakers
A vaccine passport is one of many ‘necessities’ Government must deliver to see the UK through the pandemic, the former Labour leader says
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'Redemption': How a scientist's unwavering belief in mRNA gave the world a Covid-19 vaccine
For the Hungarian-born scientist the breakthrough goes beyond the hope that the new vaccine will help turn the tide of the pandemic. It is a validation of her career-long belief in the therapeutic potential of synthetic messenger RNA
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Dame Kate Bingham: ‘Downing Street was indifferent about vaccines’
The former chair of the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce has penned a scathing critique of those who led our response to the pandemic
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Pfizer initially rejected Covid vaccine as it didn’t think virus would amount to much
Couple who pioneered jab given to millions around world tell how pharmaceutical giant wrongly assumed outbreak would be quickly contained
Regional politics
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Young voters hope to oust military from politics in Thailand’s ‘most pivotal election to date’
At the core of Sunday’s vote is the fight for democracy, led by young people demanding reform and an end to a cycle of coups
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‘Justice for my son’: Families of drug war victims celebrate as ‘punisher’ Duterte sent to ICC
Former Philippines president faces charges of ‘murder as a crime against humanity’ for overseeing death squads in an anti-drugs crackdown
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Australia’s ‘metropolitan elite’ headed for defeat in country’s ‘Brexit moment’
The controversial referendum for Aboriginal rights splits the nation in a bitter debate
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Two hours and 48 minutes of chaos: How martial law rose and fell in South Korea
Yoon Suk Yeol shocked the world and sent the army to the gates of parliament to seize power
Viral emergence
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Could clues to the pandemic’s origins have been lurking in the Natural History Museum all along?
The museum has unearthed thousands of bat skulls and pickled specimens which may yield new details on the origins of Covid-19
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How bats could hold the key to human health – and slow the ageing process
Scientists say the furry flying mammals have a superhero protein capable of extending our life spans – and tolerating viral threats
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Wuhan officials identified Huanan market as a pandemic risk pre-Covid
Exclusive: Health experts in Wuhan knew the wet market was a pandemic risk at least five years before Covid-19 emerged, a British scientist has revealed
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Mutated strain of mpox with ‘pandemic potential’ found in DRC mining town
Researchers call for ‘swift action’ to halt the outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo as experts warn virus is ‘not over’
Disease frontline
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The greatest threat was in the lab, says the scientist who co-discovered Ebola
While the deadly virus continues to pose a threat, Peter Piot warned the biggest danger to humanity is not Ebola itself, Disease X – an as yet unknown threat
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‘I thought I’d be next’: Working in the ‘red zone’ of the world’s deadliest disease
Almost 80 per cent of Rwanda’s Marburg cases have been doctors and nurses. One medic describes the reality of treating the deadly virus
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Patient zero: How one doctor helped uncover the origin of the DRC’s mpox outbreak
Dr Leandre Murhula Masirika was looking for the virus in the jungle – then it turned up in his WhatsApp inbox
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‘It was pitch black – I had to navigate a power cut in an Ebola treatment centre’
British doctor Tom Fletcher was on the frontline at the peak of Uganda’s latest outbreak, where staff and supply shortages were chronic