Carnival hits the streets in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this week. As well as preparations for the crowds and colourful processions, health authorities have also been putting in extra measures to try to contain a huge outbreak of dengue fever. Last week a health emergency was declared in the city. And as Claudia hears from Peruvian health journalist Fabiola Torres, cases are rising to levels not seen for decades across the whole of Latin America. Consultant in public health Dr Ike Anya is in the Hea...
Feb 14, 2024•26 min
The hospital in Old Fangak, South Sudan is extremely remote; it’s a place that can only be accessed by boat, using the river Nile. The airstrip has been flooded for the past four years – flooding that has also destroyed crops and drowned cattle. Since April 2023, 501 cases of hepatitis E have been treated at the hospital, and 21 people – mainly women – have died. Now, doctors have launched a vaccination campaign that targets women and girls in communities that are up to eight hours by canoe from...
Feb 07, 2024•26 min
There are neglected tropical diseases, and then there is Noma, a severe gangrenous disease which tends to affect 2 to 6-year-olds and has a 90% fatality rate. Its quick onset means that often children die before they can get medical attention and it is thought that many medical professionals don’t even get taught about early symptoms. Claudia meets Fidel Strub, originally from Burkina Faso who survived Noma to ask about the impact on his life. This week the first meeting of an international grou...
Jan 31, 2024•28 min
It has been another ‘milestone week’ for the fight against malaria. The archipelago island nation Cape Verde became the third country in Africa to officially eliminate the disease. Meanwhile in Cameroon, a ‘world first’ routine malaria vaccination programme has begun. A little girl called Daniella received the first vaccine in a clinic near capital city Yaoundé on Monday. BBC health reporter Philippa Roxby joins Claudia Hammond in the studio to gauge what progress we are making against a disease...
Jan 24, 2024•26 min
Have you ever considered rowing across the Atlantic? How about making it even more challenging by doing it whilst wearing an ECG monitor and filling in psychological questionnaires? Claudia Hammond speaks to the first Austrian woman to row the Atlantic, Ciara Burns, who collected data throughout her 42-day crossing. And to the professor who studied the data, Eugenijus Kaniusas from the Vienna University of Technology, about the three big dips in mood along the way. Ciara talks about the emotiona...
Jan 17, 2024•26 min
A recent study from Canada has found that patients treated by female surgeons have a lower likelihood of adverse postoperative outcomes (death, hospital readmission or major complications) at 90 days and one year following surgery. The same research team also found in another recent study that there are lower 30-day, 90-day and 1-year post-surgery health care costs for patients treated by female surgeons compared with those treated by male surgeons. Claudia Hammond discusses these findings with ...
Jan 10, 2024•26 min
A treaty to help the world cope with the next pandemic, new ways to treat undernutrition and a last goodbye to polio. Could these be some of the health advances that 2024 will bring? Claudia asks global health journalist Andrew Green for his predictions. Monica Lakhanpaul, professor of integrated community child health at University College London joins Claudia in the studio to discuss new evidence showing that a vaccination for winter virus RSV could cut hospital admissions in children by more ...
Jan 03, 2024•26 min
As 2024 draws ever closer, Claudia Hammond looks back at the medical news, trends and advances which the last twelve months have brought us. She is joined in the studio by BBC health reporter Philippa Roxby and Graham Easton, Professor of Clinical Communication Skills at Queen Mary University in London who debate their favourite health advances of the year. And Claudia returns to some of the biggest health news stories of the year to ask what happened next? Reuters’ Krishna N. Das gives an updat...
Dec 27, 2023•26 min
With the failure of the PrEPVacc trial in Southern and Eastern Africa, HIV researchers are concerned that an HIV vaccine will not be developed before 2030 at the earliest. Claudia Hammond is joined by Matt Fox, Professor of Global Health Epidemiology at Boston University, to discuss the latest news about HIV vaccines, funding and treatment from around the world. We also hear about Super 5, a home-grown nutritional supplement being made by rural women in Rajasthan, in India, to address the proble...
Dec 20, 2023•26 min
Morning sickness affects 4 in 5 women at some point in pregnancy but until now we’ve known little about why. Now researchers in the USA, Sri Lanka and the UK have discovered that it could be linked to a hormone produced in the placenta, and the mother’s reaction to it. Dr Graham Easton explains how it could lead to new cures. He also brings Claudia Hammond news from Ukraine where the ongoing war has caused an increase in multidrug-resistant organisms. The US Center for Disease Control and Preven...
Dec 13, 2023•26 min
On Health Check we often cover the outbreak of a mystery illness or unusual health event that has occurred somewhere across the globe. But how do we know when these illnesses are serious and how are they identified and investigated? Claudia Hammond speaks to Dr. Jarod Hanson from the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) about how they scan and review information related to global health security. This follows news about an outbreak of anthrax in the Kyotera district of Uganda. We he...
Dec 06, 2023•26 min
When former Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern passed legislation to reduce access to tobacco products, the policy was held up as an international example. So there was shock among health experts in New Zealand and across the world this week when the newly sworn in Government announced they would be scrapping the plans. Claudia Hammond asks Janet Hoek, Professor of Public Health at the University of Otago what the international impact will be. She hears from the people who hear music w...
Nov 29, 2023•26 min
The UK has become the first country in the world to approve a gene editing treatment for people with the genetic conditions sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. The news has been hailed as revolutionary, unthinkable just a decade ago. But will the new treatment provide a realistic option for the millions of people living with these haemoglobin disorders worldwide? BBC health reporter Philippa Roxby joins Claudia to look at the latest. She also brings new evidence from Australia on the healt...
Nov 22, 2023•26 min
The committee that advises on vaccinations in the UK has recommended that chickenpox is added to the standard list of childhood vaccinations; something which the USA and many European countries have been doing for some time. So why do some countries vaccinate children against chickenpox and others choose not to? Claudia Hammond is joined by family doctor Ann Robinson. They also hear from conversation analyst Charlotte Albury, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, about how doctor...
Nov 15, 2023•26 min
This week it was announced in the United Kingdom that women at high risk of breast cancer will be able to take a drug, Anastrozole, which is usually used to treat breast cancer, as a preventative measure. Recent trials show the drug can reduce the incidence of breast cancer by almost 50% in post-menopausal women at moderate or high risk of the disease. Claudia Hammond is joined by medical journalist Clare Wilson from New Scientist to discuss how the drug works and who it will be offered to. We a...
Nov 08, 2023•26 min
Antibiotics are becoming increasingly ineffective at treating common childhood infections, according to a new study. The research, led by the University of Sydney, found some antibiotics recommended by the World Health Organization for children had less than 50% effectiveness in treating infections such as sepsis, pneumonia and meningitis. Claudia Hammond is joined by Monica Lakhanpaul, professor of integrated community child health at University College London, to discuss the findings and calls...
Nov 01, 2023•28 min
Talented guitarist, Hamish Barclay, was given steroids when he was a teenager to treat a kidney problem. He then experienced the rare side effect of psychosis and was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. He has lived the condition for the past ten years. Now 29, he’s being supported by his mother Josephine to return to making music once again. Claudia Hammond sits down with Josephine, Hamish and his sister Maudie for a conversation about life with schizophrenia – and the stigma around the word. T...
Oct 25, 2023•26 min
More than 100 people are suspected to have died in Zimbabwe in the most recent outbreak of cholera there. Almost 5,000 possible cases have been reported across the country, with the Zimbabwean government moving to ban large gatherings to prevent the spread of the water-borne disease. Claudia Hammond is joined by BBC health reporter Philippa Roxby to discuss how authorities are hoping to avoid a repeat of the last major cholera epidemic in the country, which killed more than 4,000 people in 2008....
Oct 18, 2023•26 min
‘Doxy PEP’, or doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis, is where a common antibiotic is given to someone shortly after having unprotected sex to avoid the chance of them getting an STI like chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis. It’s an idea being put forward by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA to cut STI rates. If their proposal is rolled out across the country, it would be the first national guideline recommending Doxy PEP for certain individuals, anywhere in the world. Clau...
Oct 11, 2023•26 min
A vaccine for malaria that can be produced cheaply on a large scale has been recommended for use by the World Health Organisation. It was developed by the University of Oxford, and is only the second malaria vaccine to be developed. Claudia Hammond is joined by New Scientist health reporter Clare Wilson to look at how the new vaccine works, and why it’s proven so hard to find a way to inoculate against malaria. We also look at major new research that’s found women are facing major inequalities i...
Oct 04, 2023•26 min
Gum lancing is a tradition practiced on babies in some parts of the world. It’s done with good intentions, and involves extracting the teeth of infants with symptoms such as a fever or diarrhoea in the belief it will cure them. It can be fatal though, with tooth buds sometimes being removed using unsafe, unsterile instruments such as nails, and without anaesthesia. We hear from a family in Kenya who lost children that underwent the procedure, a dentist raising awareness of its dangers in the cou...
Sep 27, 2023•27 min
The PEPFAR scheme was launched by George W Bush in 2003 to provide HIV and Aids relief around the world. Officials say it has since saved more than 25 million lives in 55 different countries. Now, though, its future could be under threat. With its funding due to expire at the end of September, some US Republicans are pushing for it not to be renewed because of alleged links to services providing abortions. Claudia Hammond is joined by professor of epidemiology at Boston University, Matt Fox, to ...
Sep 20, 2023•27 min
The author Max Dickins was preparing to propose to his girlfriend when he came to a realisation: he didn’t have anyone he felt he could ask to be his best man. It prompted him to write the book ‘Billy No-Mates’, looking at why he didn’t have any close male friends any more, and asking if men, in general, have a friendship problem. In a special discussion in front of a live audience at the Cheltenham Science Festival in England, Claudia Hammond speaks to Max about his journey. They’re also joined...
Sep 13, 2023•26 min
With deaths from opioid overdoses rocketing to more than 100,000 people each year, the US has moved to make the drug Naloxone available to buy in pharmacies for the first time there this week. The nasal spray treatment can revive people who have overdosed within minutes. Claudia Hammond is joined by Dr Ann Robinson to hear how the drug works, and what lessons the US can learn from how other countries around the world are using it. We also hear from the first polar research team to try to tackle ...
Sep 06, 2023•26 min
In March 2015, Brazil reported a large outbreak of the Zika virus infection. Over the next year, the disease became a global medical emergency. Thousands of babies were born brain-damaged, after their mothers became infected while pregnant. As the World Health Organisation discusses the current global Zika situation and the lessons learned from the outbreak, Claudia Hammond is joined by Dr Graham Easton to hear from the families affected in Brazil and ask what life is now like for the babies who...
Aug 30, 2023•26 min
When former transplant surgeon Paolo Macchiarini first implanted a synthetic trachea into a patient more than a decade ago, it was hailed as a breakthrough. But the person he operated on died, as did subsequent patients. And in 2013, Macchiarini was reported to Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, where he had carried out the operations, for scientific misconduct. Over the years, Health Check has followed the story and in this programme we hear the latest as Macchiarini appeals against a prison senten...
Aug 23, 2023•26 min
Iraq is the latest country to report a batch of contaminated cough syrup according to the World Health Organisation. It’s the latest in a string of health alerts issued by WHO in the last 12 months. According to reports, 300 children died worldwide last year by taking contaminated cough syrups. BBC health reporter Philippa Roxby joins Claudia Hammond to discuss this and the latest health research. When the Ugandan government passed tough anti LGBTQ legislation in May, health experts claimed it w...
Aug 16, 2023•26 min
In the week that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that leprosy could now be endemic in the South-eastern United States, Claudia Hammond looks at global action on leprosy with science journalist Kamala Thiagarajan. There is an international effort to learn more about weaning seriously ill people off ventilator support in hospitals. We hear about the Weansafe study from Ireland. Professor of integrated community child health at University College London, Monica Lakhanpaul joi...
Aug 09, 2023•26 min
Henrietta Lacks was only 31 years old when she died from cervical cancer in 1951. While she was in hospital in the USA, her cells were harvested without her knowledge which, since being replicated infinitely, have gone on to enable research into cancer, dementia and Parkinson’s. As well as contributing to the development of vaccines for polio and COVID-19. Her family have fought for decades to get justice for the “stolen” cells, and this week reached a settlement with Massachusetts-based Thermo ...
Aug 02, 2023•26 min
The World Health Organisation and UNICEF say global immunisation services reached 4 million more children in 2022 compared to the previous year, after a huge backslide during the Covid 19 pandemic. But the progress in countries like India and Indonesia masks continued decline in many lower income countries. Global health expert Tabitha Mwangi and Claudia Hammond discuss how immunisation numbers can bounce back. They also look at new research from Sub-Saharan Africa that suggests as many as one i...
Jul 26, 2023•26 min
