Claudia examines Mental Health and Covid and a large new Lancet Psychiatry study showing that one in three people develop anxiety, depression or a neurological problem in the six months after they were ill with the virus. Ten years on from the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in Japan. Professor Jun Shigemura discusses whether the…
Coronavirus in Iran which was was one of the first countries to be hit hard by the coronavirus. In the first population wide survey of infection rates in a Middle Eastern country, Iranian medical researchers now estimate that about one in five people on average were infected during its first wave in 18 cities in…
Are genetic therapies for sickle cell disease beginning to come of age? Claudia Hammond talks to David Williams and Erica Esrick of Boston Children’s Hospital about their promising results with a gene therapy for the disease. This is a pilot trial involving six young patients. Their report appears in the latest edition of the New…
In the week of World AIDS Day, Health Check looks at what’s being described as a milestone in the prevention of HIV infection in women. It is a form of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) – an injection every 8 weeks of a drug called cabotegravir. A clinical trial has been comparing it to a daily PrEP…
Global measles deaths were already at a 23 year high in 2019 after several years of inadequate immunisation levels in a number of countries around the world. The coronavirus pandemic looks set to make matters worse. The World Health Organisation is worried that disruptions to measles vaccination programmes this year in Africa have substantially raised…
Prisoners in China and Jennifer Pak looks at the ban on harvesting organs from executed prisoners in China. Officials say that the practice has now stopped but is it really being enforced? For decades China was the only country in the world to systematically harvest organs from executed prisoners to treat its sick patients. In…
This week health Check from the BBC and presented by Claudia Hammond looks at Vitamin D, earworms and declining malaria available LIVE on Phuket Island Radio on Sunday morning at 8am. Vitamin D refers to a group of fat-soluble secosteroids responsible for enhancing intestinal absorption of calcium, iron,magnesium, phosphate and zinc. In humans, the most…
Trafficked children in Southeast Asia, Â In the largest study of its kind, researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have discovered high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, self-harm and suicide attempts in trafficked children and adolescents rescued from sex work and forced labour in Southeast Asia. Dr Ligia Kiss discusses…
Does eating while walking lead to over-eating and weight gain? A study in the UK suggests eating on the move makes you eat more, especially chocolate. We hear from Professor Jane Ogden from the University of Surrey plus Dr Graham Easton assesses the research and the role that modern lifestyles play in the rise of…