Health Check
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Health Check
Health issues and medical breakthroughs from around the world.
Episoade Recente
269 episoade
Immune system researchers win Nobel Prize
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for discoveries that explain how the immune system attacks hostile infections, but...
Creating human eggs from skin cells
Functional human eggs have been generated using human skin cells in a breakthrough study. What impact could this have on couples with fertility issues...
Trump’s unproven claims on autism and paracetamol
President Trump has claimed that consuming Tylenol, or paracetamol, whilst pregnant can increase the risk of autism in children; Claudia is joined by...
More children are obese than underweight
In a ‘historical turning point’ there are now more overweight than underweight children and teenagers worldwide according to a new report from UNICEF....
The psychology of curiosity
Is curiosity good for us, or should we learn a lesson from what curiosity did to the cat? And why does curiosity drive some people to explore the ends...
Have we found a better alternative to aspirin?
Millions of us take aspirin daily to ward off heart attack or stroke, but a new study has found an alternative blood thinner, clopidogrel, could be mo...
A breakthrough in treating chronic pain
One in five of us suffer with chronic pain globally and the exact cause of it is often unknown making it very hard to treat. However, in what has been...
Using AI to discover new antibiotics
AI models have helped to discover new potential antibiotics to treat drug resistant infections of gonorrhoea and MRSA. We speak to Professor Jim Colli...
How plastic harms health
As negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty are due to conclude at the United Nations, we check in on whether health is on the agenda with Dr Cressid...
Malnutrition in Gaza
UN-backed experts – the IPC - say the "worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out" in Gaza and that there is mounting evidence that widesp...
Making human blood deadly to mosquitoes
Antiparasitic drug Ivermectin has been shown to reduce malaria transmission by making the blood of treated persons deadly to the mosquitoes that carry...
Do you really have a penicillin allergy?
Penicillin is the go-to antibiotic for many common infections - but in the UK more than 1-in-15 adults have a penicillin allergy label on their medica...
HIV prevention drug Lenacapavir recommended by WHO
Lenacapavir has been incredibly promising in trials and now the World Health Organisation have officially recommended the drug for HIV prevention. Smi...
First malaria treatment approved for newborns
Until now there has been no approved treatment for malaria in newborns and infants weighing less than 4.5kg. We hear from families and clinicians firs...
Can bacteria-eating viruses be used to fight superbugs?
Phages are viruses that only infect bacteria. How might they help us tackle antimicrobial resistance? Franklin Nobrega and Esme Brinsden from the Univ...
Childhood vaccination coverage stalls worldwide
There has been immense progress on childhood vaccination since 1974, with over four billion children vaccinated worldwide. So why now are we seeing va...
Future thinking
Thinking about the future comes so naturally to most people that we do not realise what a complicated and essential skill it is. Claudia Hammond and a...
Mpox surging in Sierra Leone
As mpox cases rise in Sierra Leone, we check-in with Professor Trudie Lang to understand the implications of the continuing spread of the disease and...
Exercise and immunotherapy improving cancer outcomes
A new immunotherapy regime has shown significant improvements in treatment for head and neck cancer. Meanwhile, exercise is boosting outcomes for colo...
A new way to screen for cancer in dense breasts
Women with dense breasts are four times more likely to develop breast cancer than women with low breast density and it’s also harder for cancer to be...
A promising new antimalarial
A new anti-malarial compound has been designed to target disease-causing parasites responsible for up to 90% of malaria cases in humans.
Stepha...
Listening to your body's signals
Claudia is joined by Caroline Williams to learn about the cutting-edge science of interoception – that’s how the brain interprets signals that come fr...
Shingles vaccine lowers risk of heart disease
Receiving a specific type of shingles vaccine may provide a 23% lower risk of cardiovascular events like stroke or heart failure for up to 8 years. Wi...
Mycetoma’s only research centre destroyed
Amidst conflict in Sudan, the world-leading Mycetoma Research Centre in Khartoum has been destroyed. We talk to the centre’s founder to find out what...
WHO agrees to a pandemic treaty
After 3 years of discussions, 194 member countries of the World Health Organisation have agreed to the text of a pandemic treaty designed to make the...
Have we found an animal reservoir of mpox?
Has the long-standing mystery of which wild animals form a reservoir of mpox in the wild finally been solved? Some scientists think they have cracked...
The Kidney Waiting Game
What would you do if you have always considered yourself healthy and one day you find out that not only is this not the case, but you in fact need a n...
Zimbabwe government takes on ‘friendship benches’
‘Friendship benches’, a mental health intervention first piloted in Zimbabwe, are now being handed over to the government in that country. It is hoped...
How do funding cuts feel?
What does it feel like to be part of a study which might have its funding cut? Marty Reiswig has a rare genetic mutation that means he will get Alzhei...
Judge blocks further USAID shutdown
A federal judge has said the shuttering of USAID is ‘likely unconstitutional’, while the Trump administration has been ordered to pay back bills for U...
Measles spreads in the Americas
The Americas are in danger of losing their measles elimination status as the disease spreads due to under vaccination. Also on the show, a study finds...
Ninety percent of USAID programs cut
As the Trump administration cuts 90% of programs funded by the US Agency for International Development, we look at the effect on global health.
...
Improving global encephalitis care
Encephalitis can be a debilitating condition, but many people have never even heard of it. A new global report looks at how we can improve diagnosis a...
The global oxygen crisis
The global need for medical oxygen is high, but there are huge gaps in safe and affordable access. The first report of its kind identifies not only wh...
The psychology of nostalgia
Do you look back on the past with rose-tinted spectacles, memories of the good old days accompanied by warm, fuzzy feelings? Or when you reflect on th...
Guinea eliminates sleeping sickness
As Guinea becomes the latest country to eliminate sleeping sickness, how close are we to defeating the disease completely?
Also on the program,...
USA issues stop-work order on global aid
What will President Trump’s order stopping work on foreign aid projects mean for global health?
Also on the program, a new method for repairing...
A WHO without the United States
As President Trump signals his intention to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, what could the global health ramifications...
The toll of wildfires on health
With extensive wildfires in Los Angeles, we look at the longer-term health impacts of wildfires and why there is still a risk to health after a fire i...
Should we be worried about HMPV?
With reports of rising cases of the respiratory illness HMPV in multiple countries and concern over the risk it poses, we look behind the headlines to...