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 group of researchers working to improve awareness and treatment of the disease is taking place. South African epidemiologist Dr Elise Farley explains why more research is desperately needed. Family doctor Dr Ann Robinson brings promising news for treatment of another tropical disease, Nipah virus. The first-in-human vaccine trial has begun in the UK. And new research into the effectiveness of testosterone treatment in men.Journalist Mike Powell updates Health Check as he continues his journey to kidney transplant. And a charity in Northern Ireland which is using a virtual reality experience to give seeing family members a better understanding of what it’s like to live with visual impairment.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury Assistant Producers: Jonathan Blackwell and Imaan Moin

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 which kills 600,000 people in Africa every year.Philippa also brings brand new research from the US that shows how air pollution, particularly from forest fires, can cause more people to suffer with eczema. Figures from one study suggest that dermatology visits rose eightfold in Boston in August 2023 compared to the same period a year earlier, while wild fires raged in Canada.Mike Powell updates on his journey to having a kidney transplant. David Mataix-Cols, professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Science at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden discusses his new research that helps to explain why some people who suffer with health anxiety have a higher risk of dying. It has become known as the ‘hypochondria paradox.’ And Philippa and Claudia hear about a collaboration between a cardiovascular surgeon and a two-Michelin-starred chef, Doctor Nirav Patel and Fredrik Berselius, who have created a free cookbook designed as a training tool to improve heart surgeons’ dexterity, called The Heart Surgeon's Cook Book. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producers: Jonathan Blackwell and Clare Salisbury Researcher: Imaan Moin

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 emotional highs and lows of rowing to America, about the night skies, meeting whales, and how it feels when the Atlantic comes crashing down on you. Sports psychologist Peter Olusoga from Sheffield Hallam University, discusses the mental challenges and dealing with emotions during an adventure like Ciara's.Claudia also speaks to Dr Nick Tiller, ultramarathon runner and exercise scientist at Harbor-UCLA, about the physical benefits and costs of taking part in ultra-endurance sports. Nick has run 100-mile races as well as running across the Sahara Desert. They discuss how peak performance in endurance events can peak at an older age than more fast-paced, high intensity sports, and whether anyone is physically able to take up an endurance sport if they set their mind to it. Also giving their thoughts on the physical impact of endurance sports are Yvette Hlaváčová who holds the women's world record for swimming the English Channel and Louise Deldicque who is professor in exercise physiology at UCLouvain in Belgium.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producers: Jonathan Blackwell and Lorna Stewart Editor: Holly Squire

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 two of the researchers from the University of Toronto, Dr. Chris Wallis and Dr. Angela Jerath.Claudia is joined by medical journalist Clare Wilson from New Scientist to discuss deaths related to hydroxychloroquine, which was prescribed in hospitalised patients with Covid-19 in many countries despite of the low-level evidence.We also hear how the re-imagining of cult American TV series, Sesame Street, can improve the health of Syrian children living as refugees in Jordan.Claudia and Clare also discuss a study which suggests that hearing aids may prevent or delay the onset and progression of dementia, and another study into how ancient DNA reveals the reasons for high multiple sclerosis rates in Europe.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Jonathan Blackwell Editor: Holly Squire

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 than 80%.And a mobile phone app which has been used to screen people’s coughs in Kenya for signs of TB.Plus Claudia speaks to British journalist Mike Powell who was diagnosed a year ago with kidney failure as he prepares for transplant.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury Assistant Producer: Jonathan Blackwell Editor: Holly Squire

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 update on the contaminated cough syrup scandal in which more than 300 children are known to have died worldwide. And she revisits a story Health Check has been following for more than a decade; the case of disgraced transplant surgeon Paolo Macchiarini, as a new TV series hits Netflix. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury

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 problem of child undernutrition and malnutrition.Claudia also speaks to Dr Rašads Misirovs to talk about sneezing. In a rare case, a patient of Dr Misirovs in Scotland tore a hole in their windpipe by stifling a sneeze. We learn more about why we sneeze as well as how to prevent injury when doing so. Claudia and Matt also discuss how deaths from work-related illnesses are increasing, and concerns over the huge increase in calls to poison centres in the US because of accidental overdoses of injected weight-loss drugs.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Jonathan Blackwell

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 Prevention, and the Center for Public Health of Ukraine are calling the spread of antimicrobial resistance in Ukraine an urgent crisis. People living in Port Sudan, the country’s biggest sea port city, have spent days struck by an unprecedented infestation of flies. Claudia hears how it has made everyday life almost impossible, and how it could have long term health consequences for residents. And how does watching news coverage of disasters make you feel? Claudia discusses how bad news can impact our mental health with Roxane Cohen Silver, Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science, Medicine, and Public Health at the University of California Irvine, and Michael Clemence, Associate Director, Trends & Futures at Ipsos. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury Assistant Producer: Jonathan Blackwell

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 hear from those who have been affected.Claudia is joined by BBC health reporter, Dr. Smitha Mundasad. They discuss the news that the UK Biobank has unveiled unparalleled new data from whole genome sequencing of its half a million participants. They hear from Dr. Maik Pietzner about why this data is so important for genetic research – his research into the cause of Raynaud's phenomenon was possible because of the data.New research from the University of Washington has looked at how unfiltered air from rush-hour traffic significantly increases passengers’ blood pressure, both while in the car and up to 24 hours later. And a new paper released in the journal Nature suggests that a new method to analyse the ageing of organs in humans may allow us to better predict disease risk and the effects of ageing.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury Assistant Producer: Jonathan Blackwell

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 when nothing is playing. Professor of cognitive neurology at Newcastle University, Tim Griffiths, describes what might be happening in the brain to cause these musical hallucinations. Claudia is also joined by public health expert Dr Tabitha Mwangi to discuss new research from Tanzania where health experts are collaborating with religious leaders to provide family planning services. They look ahead to COP28 in the United Arab Emirates where the climate conference will hold its first ever ‘Health Day’. And ask whether we should be concerned about the surge of childhood pneumonia in China?Image Credit: Peter DazeleyPresenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury Assistant Producer: Jonathan Blackwell

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 health benefits of delayed cord clamping to new born premature babies. And a study drawing attention to the impact of surfing on surfers’ mental health. Could it add billions of dollars to the world economy? Losing a family member is a difficult experience for everyone but for people who no longer have a connection to the person who has died, it can cause a mixture of grief, sadness, guilt, or relief. Claudia talks to broadcaster and author, Professor Alice Roberts, about her experience of losing her mother after being estranged for 5 years. In the week that the World Health Organisation announced a new focus on the health impacts of loneliness, we noticed a familiar comparison in the headlines; that the health risks from being lonely are equivalent to smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. But what does that really mean? Claudia asks Professor Andrea Wigfield, Director of Centre for Loneliness Studies in the UK. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury Assistant Producer: Jonathan Blackwell

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 doctors communicate with patients with obesity can have a significant impact on their weight loss success. And with shortages of doctors in many parts of the world, are shared appointments the answer, where a group of patients with the same condition all see the doctor at once? Also discussed, high blood pressure and how reducing your salt intake can be just as effective as medication in some cases. Image: Little girl receiving chickenpox vaccination in clinic Credit: Liudmila Chernetska Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producers: Jonathan Blackwell and Helena Selby Editor: Holly Squire

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 also hear from Pakistan where four hundred teachers in Islamabad have been trained to screen their pupils for eye problems. Often families can’t afford for their eyes to be tested, so the classroom is being used to tackle both eye health and the stigma that can surround wearing glasses. And do you think you are humble? Well Claudia discusses whether the whole idea of humility is undervalued with Professor Daryl Van Tongeren, the Director of the Frost Center for Social Science Research at Hope College in the United States. And Clare tries to answer the question: do we really need eight of hours of sleep a night? Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producers: Jonathan Blackwell and Helena Selby Editor: Holly Squire

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 for the urgent development of new treatments. We also look at Raynaud’s phenomenon – a disorder that stops blood flowing properly to people’s fingers and toes – and hear from a Canadian musician who’s had to end his concerts early because of it, along with a researcher in Germany working to identify what causes it. Claudia also looks at new research from China suggesting that practicing tai chi may help slow down the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. And Monica tells us about the work she’s been doing in Brazil speaking to children about how to make their local communities safer so they can spend more time outdoors. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Dan Welsh, with Jonathan Blackwell

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. The family talk about how they sometimes avoid using the term because they know it can put people off playing music with Hamish and Maudie describes how her mum ensures Hamish can continue to play by driving him to London and sitting in classes with him. We also hear some of Hamish’s compositions, as he tells us about the voices – or auditory hallucinations – that affect his songwriting. And hear how important returning to music has been for his wellbeing and mental health. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Dan Welsh

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. We also hear about the Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention, which started out as a PhD project and is now used across the world to help authorities discover where violence is taking place and how it can be prevented. Claudia speaks to the man behind the idea, and the doctor now hoping to introduce it to cities across the US. Claudia and Philippa also look at new calls for urgent action to address male fertility around the world. And we travel to Sierra Leone to hear about what has been described as a ‘diabetes time bomb’ in the country. Image: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock Presenter: Claudia Hammond Content Editor: Erika Wright/Holly Squire Producer: Dan Welsh

‘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. Claudia Hammond speaks to Professor Annie Luetkemeyer about the evidence for Doxy PEP, and hears from a Canadian man who had syphilis. BBC Health and Science Correspondent James Gallagher brings Claudia new research on the most effective COVID-19 disease trackers. And a study from Sweden which could help us understand why people live beyond 100, by analysing their blood. And they hear from people around the world who have come together to talk about grief. The New Normal is a charity that has its roots in a barber shop in the UK when Ben (the barber) and Jack (his client) realised they shared the experience of losing their fathers. They set up a support group where people could share honest stories about grief. Now the charity have members across the globe who meet online and share stories about losing the people they love. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury Editor: Erika Wright

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 in cancer care around the world, with calls for a feminist approach to cancer prevention, detection, and treatment. Claudia and Clare also discuss this week’s announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Professors Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman are sharing the prize for their work developing the technology that led to the mRNA Covid vaccines. And we hear whether or not there’s evidence that mental health ‘first aid’ courses have real medical benefits. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Content Editor: Erika Wright Producer: Dan Welsh

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 country, and Claudia Hammond speaks to dental public health expert Dr Kristina Wanyonyi-Kay to find out more about the practice. Claudia is also joined by BBC health reporter Smitha Mundasad to discuss new research on the Covid drug molnupiravir, suggesting it could be leading to new mutations of the virus passing between people. We also hear from a listener who wants to know if eye exercises can stop our sight deteriorating as we get older, and from an ophthalmologist with the answer. And how scientists have discovered specific wiring in the brains of mice that leads them to begin nesting when they’re getting ready to sleep. Claudia and Smitha look at what this could tell us about our own bedtime preparations. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Content Editor: Erika Wright Producer: Dan Welsh Additional Production: Dr Kristina Wanyonyi-Kay

The PEPFAR scheme was launched by George W Bush in 2003 to provide HIV and AIDS relief around the world. Officials say it’s 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 look at what the outcome could mean for global AIDS provision. We also hear from scientists in Nigeria and the US about the groundbreaking discovery of a gene variant in people of African ancestry that increases the risk of Parkinson’s Disease. Claudia and Matt also look at a new study suggesting a minority of people who are sceptical of vaccines are less likely to get their dogs inoculated. We hear from researchers in Germany looking at whether getting people to exercise while undergoing chemotherapy could improve their outcomes. And just how good is turmeric at treating indigestion? Claudia looks at a new study into the spice from Thailand. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Dan Welsh

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 by Robin Dunbar, a Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at Oxford University who’s spent decades researching friendships in humans and other primates, and Radha Modgil, a practicing GP and wellbeing expert whose book ‘Know Your Own Power’ looks at what advice there is for people facing difficulties as they go through life. The panel look at what psychology can teach us about friendships between men, the difference these relationships can make to our mental health, and the best way of both maintaining the friendships we have and finding ways to make new friends. Produced in partnership with the Open University. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Dan Welsh

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 taboos over menstruation by training the next generation of Arctic and Antarctic scientists how to deal with having your period during an expedition. Claudia and Ann look at new research suggesting the morning after pill becomes more effective when taken with anti-inflammatory drugs. And we find out whether opposites do truly attract, as a new study on romantic relationships uncovers what happy couples do and don’t have in common. Image Credit: Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Dan Welsh

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 were born with complications. We also hear about new recommendations for how communities around the world can better prevent Sudden Cardiac Death, as well as research on whether how far away you are from a defibrillator is related to how deprived your area is. Claudia speaks to a psychiatric nurse and the woman who says she saved her life by going above and beyond the call of duty. And we hear about the world first from Australia, where scientists discovered a living worm in the brain of a woman who’d been experiencing stomach pain and night sweats. Image Credit: Joao Paulo Burini Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Dan Welsh

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 sentence in Sweden for gross assault. Claudia Hammond is joined by BBC health and science correspondent James Gallagher who has been finding out whether eating his meals quickly or slowly is better for his health. And he brings us news from the USA of one of the first functional kidney transplants from a pig into a human. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Dan Welsh

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 would have a devastating effect on HIV healthcare services. We hear from a clinic in Kampala where people living with HIV are scared to collect their medicine. And Claudia speaks to Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at University of California Berkeley in the USA, Bob Knight. His team are trying to improve technology for people who struggle with speech by decoding brain signals. All with a bit of help from classic rock music. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury

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 joins Claudia in the studio to discuss why the roll out of a new vaccine for RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) in the US could be a gamechanger. And why on your next trip to a hospital, you could see groups of elderly in-patients going on walks. Could it help prevent the effects of bedrest? Image: Leprosy, nerve biopsy, nerve fibres surrounded by histiocytes Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury

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 Fisher Scientific Inc. The United Nations says we now live in the era of "global boiling". As temperatures continue to soar across the southern USA, the BBC’s Health and Science Correspondent James Gallagher heads to a high-tech heated chamber in the UK, on a mission to find out how hot is too hot for our bodies to cope with. In Sweden, dentist Dr Nivetha Natarajan Gavriilidou tells Claudia Hammond about her work using the bone structure of the jaw to predict how we might get shorter as we age. Could it lead to dentists working closer with GPs? It’s a question we also put to our studio guest family doctor Ann Robinson. Who brings us new research from the USA that could lead to better treatment for children’s runny noses. And potentially some good news if you’re struggling to shave seconds off your 5KM PB. Could beating your time be down to your genes? Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury

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 in 10 teenagers might have high blood pressure, and what might be the most effective way of lowering it? While you may be gripped by the action from the Women’s football World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, Dr Kerry Peek is keeping a careful eye on the games for health reasons. She’s one of a team of ‘concussion spotters’ deployed this year for the first time at the tournament. Claudia asks her why professional sports women are more at risk from head injuries than men. And are you a perfectionist? Psychologist Dr Thom Curran says striving to be perfect could put our mental health at risk. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producers: Clare Salisbury and Dan Welsh (Photo: A child gets administered the polio vaccine from a health worker in Kabul, Afghanistan, 15 May 2023. Credit: SAMIULLAH POPAL Samiullah Popal/EPA)

Just months after the ‘momentous’ announcement of the first drug shown to slow the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, the results of a global trial into another have been published. The antibody medicine donanemab helped people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s by slowing the pace of the brain’s decline by about a third. Dr Graham Easton joins Claudia Hammond to look at what another ‘breakthrough’ means in practice. They also look at new evidence from the USA that giving hearing aids to older people at risk from dementia could be another way to slow cognitive decline in some people. While caring for women in childbirth, midwives are expected to be compassionate. Claudia hears from Dr Halima Musa Abdul, Senior Lecturer in Nursing Science at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, and to Dr Kaveri Mayra, who trained in India and is now a researcher at the University of British Columbia. They say that particularly in lower and middle income countries, midwives aren’t being shown enough compassion at work themselves. And we hear from Germany where a portable brain scanner could provide a solution for people in hard-to-reach health clinics. Image Credit: Andrew Brookes Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury & Dan Welsh

“Sickle cell is not all that we are – Sickle Cell is solvable.” Lea Kilenga Bey from Kenya founded the non-profit Africa Sickle Cell Organisation to campaign on behalf of people like her who live with an inherited blood condition known as sickle cell disease. Now a group of experts from around the world are calling on Governments to provide better care for people with conditions like Lea’s. It comes just weeks after a study published in academic journal The Lancet Haematology showed that the number of people around the world who die with sickle cell disease could be as much as 11 times higher than previously estimated. Claudia Hammond speaks to Lea and hears from Professor Jennifer Knight-Madden in Jamaica where pioneering research has led to a newborn screening programme that helps to diagnose and treat Sickle Cell Disease in babies. Side by Side is a pilot initiative led by the Alzheimer’s Society in the UK, pairing up volunteers with people living with dementia based on their common interests. It’s how David met Simon, who learnt he had Alzheimer’s disease during the Covid 19 lockdown. We hear from David, Simon, and Simon’s wife Ruth about the pair’s weekly walks and how they have helped Simon come to terms with his diagnosis. And Claudia is joined by Consultant in public health Dr Ike Anya. They discuss new research on living with dementia including a study that suggests resistance training might delay the onset of symptoms in people with Alzheimer’s. There’s an early breakthrough in finding a treatment for parasitic born African Trypanosomiasis or Sleeping Sickness. And the researchers combining health education with street theatre in Malawi. How an interactive performance involving “infectious” beach balls transmitted by a giant Tsetse fly is teaching people about catching Sleeping Sickness. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury Image credit: Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library

Since early times, the drum has been part of human society. But have you ever considered how drumming might actually improve our physical and mental health? Researchers from the University of Essex are at this year’s annual Royal Society’s Summer Exhibition in London to talk to the public about their work which shows drumming during a rock concert might give you a similar workout as playing football. Along with the BBC’s health and science correspondent, James Gallagher, Claudia Hammond gets a drumming lesson. They also hear how specially designed audio is being used in virtual reality gaming to train the brains of people with hearing impairments. How micro-robots may provide the future of intricate eye surgery. And how laser technology currently being deployed by the Mars Rover could revolutionise the way we screen our bodies for diseases. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Photo: Drumming workshop plus drumming teacher Richard Davis)

African HIV research now makes up almost a third of total research being conducted into the virus. A new study highlights how it has increased from just 5 per cent in 1986. But there’s still a way to go until the quantity of research reflects the burden of HIV infections on the African continent. Claudia Hammond speaks to Professor Thumbi Ndung’u and Dr Omolara Baiyegunhi from the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa about the future of research being conducted in Africa by Africans and why it matters. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is now the fastest growing liver disease in Europe. It already affects 38 per cent of people around the world. We hear from Vienna in Austria where a mobile clinic is offering people liver scans, and specialists have been teaching school children about liver health. Dr Ann Robinson joins Claudia in the studio to discuss the latest health research including a US study with good news for people diagnosed early with a skin cancer known as melanoma. And a simple reason why staying up late might mean you won’t live as long as someone who enjoys an early start to the day. And who better to crunch the data on siestas than the President of the Spanish Federation of Sleep Medicine Societies. Dr Carlos Egea explains how the modern siesta is more about taking a short time to relax, rather than a long afternoon sleep. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury Production Coordinator: Jonathan Harris Image credit: Credit:Portra Creative #:675577867

When the Myanmar military staged a coup d’état in February 2021, many healthcare workers became the first government employees to react, announcing a boycott of state-run hospitals. Today, there are doctors, nurses and other health workers providing services across the country, outside of state hospitals and often in secret. Claudia Hammond hears how they are struggling to provide clinics with dwindling resources and equipment and about the impact it’s having on people’s health. We hear from Salvador in Brazil where a joint effort between local people, the Federal University of Bahia and the University of Liverpool is aiming to track rats to try to control the spread of the bacterial disease Leptospirosis. And Professor of Integrated Community Child Health at University College London, Monica Lakhanpaul brings us new research to discuss on the effects of polluted water on babies, why taking a short nap might be good for brain health. And an early study that suggests the painful condition Endometriosis, where tissue from the lining of the uterus moves to other organs in the body, might be caused by bacteria. If the link exists, could it provide hope for new treatments? Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury Assistant Producer: Jonathan Blackwell Production Coordinator: Jonathan Harris Image Credit: Visoot Uthairam | GETTY IMAGES | Creative #:862142692

Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne disease which spreads to humans and can cause fever and severe joint pain, sometimes felt long term. It’s most common in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. But just like better known diseases Dengue and Zika, outbreaks look set to become more widespread as the world warms. We hear from Josie Shillito who caught Chikungunya while working on the island of Réunion. And Reader in Virus Evolution at Imperial College London, Dr Nuno R. Faria gives his reaction to news of the first phase three vaccination trial for the disease. In the first of a new series where we try to answer your health questions, we hear from Steve from New Zealand who wants to know about the connection between migraines and vertigo. Dr Michael Strupp, Professor of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology at the University of Munich sheds some light. BBC health reporter Philippa Roxby joins Claudia Hammond to discuss the latest health research. This week we hear about a shortage of blood available for transfusions across Sub-Saharan Africa. A study from the US estimating how many lives of people with covid would have been saved if the vaccines had been shared evenly around the world; How a drug more commonly used to treat diabetes might lower the risk of developing long covid. And a study from Taiwan where subterranean robots have been used to destroy mosquito breeding sites in sewers. Image Credit: Reuters Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producers: Clare Salisbury & Jonathan Blackwell

When China abruptly ended its tough lockdown policy in December 2022, Covid cases in the country rose rapidly. The Government’s official death toll was 121,000, but medical epidemiologist Ray Yip is one of several experts estimating it could have been much higher. Now China is experiencing another wave of Covid-19 fuelled by the Omicron variant, but this time the nation seems determined to continue with normal life. Claudia Hammond speaks to journalist Cindy Sui who has interviewed Chinese people about how authorities are handling the virus. Claudia investigates the rise of medical journals and events, which might not be what they first appear. So called ‘pseudo-journals' have even been known to accept complete fiction. She is also joined by professor of Epidemiology at Boston University Matt Fox to discuss recent trials of a new low cost meningitis vaccine in Mali and The Gambia. If rolled out it could protect against the five main meningococcal strains found in Africa. And a new way of detecting dangerous blood loss after birth. A randomised trial shows a plastic drape, costing between 1 and 2 US dollars might significantly lower the number of deaths by post-partum haemorrhage. Image Credit: Getty Images Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury Assistant producer: Jonathan Blackwell

As Uganda approves some of the harshest anti-LGBTQ legislation in the world, we hear from Dr Chloe Orkin, Professor of infection and inequities at Queen Mary University in London about the impact the new laws are already having on HIV health services. Strict abortion laws in some US states are causing women to travel hundreds of miles to terminate their pregnancies across state lines. In the latest in our series on the health impacts of the US Supreme Court ruling on abortion, Claudia Hammond discusses the mental health consequences that these abortion restrictions can have. She speaks to Nancy Davis from Louisiana who had to travel over 1,300 miles to New York for a medically advised abortion after being told her unborn baby would not live to term. We also hear from Dr. Katherine Wisner, Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Northwestern University in Chicago, who has researched the mental health ramifications of abortion restrictions. BBC health and science correspondent James Gallagher discusses the reaction to a new UK study which claims that including certain foods and drinks can prevent age related memory loss. And how researchers in Canada and the USA have discovered a new superbug killing antibiotic using AI. Image Credit: Jadwiga Figula Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producers: Clare Salisbury and Jonathan Blackwell

As new research is released showing that lower back pain is the leading cause of disability across the world, we ask Professor of musculoskeletal health at Sydney university, Manuela Ferreira what we can do to reduce the risks. We’re talking empathy; the ability to resonate with how others feel. Do healthcare professionals have enough empathy? And can having too much sometimes cause people working in healthcare difficulties with their own mental health? BBC health reporter Smitha Mundasad joins Claudia in the studio to discuss heart health. As a new report by the World Heart Foundation warns that deaths from cardiovascular disease have increased by more than 60 per cent over the last 3 decades, we look at a study from Japan that shows how keeping your legs strong can lead to a better prognosis after a heart attack. And a device that could increase your chances of surviving an avalanche has been tested in Italy. Claudia and Smitha discuss the results. Image Credit: Moyo Studio Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury Assistant Producer: Jonathan Blackwell

Home testing kits for screening people for signs of diseases have become more and more common in recent years. Now a study in the US shows that mailing women from low-income backgrounds tests for HPV, almost doubled the uptake of cervical screening. So, is ‘do-it-yourself’ testing the answer for other conditions, in other countries? Claudia discusses with BBC health and science journalist Philippa Roxby. Dr Ike Anya is a consultant in public health and published author. He explains why he hopes his new memoir ‘Small by Small’ about his student days spent studying medicine in Nigeria might inspire medics all around the world to share their own experiences. We hear from the USA, where new nutritional standards on school meals aim to limit the amount of added sugar and salt in children’s’ lunchtime meals. Philippa looks at the World Health Organisation’s decision to declassify the Covid-19 pandemic from being a global health emergency. And she brings Claudia a study that shows why taller people with long legs might have an advantage against stockier competitors in extreme sports events held in the heat. Image Credit: The Good Brigade Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury Assistant Producer: Jonathan Blackwell

One in four babies around the world is born too small. Either preterm, small for gestational age, or with a low birthweight. We hear from maternal health advocate Ashley Muteti from Nairobi in Kenya who has had three small babies, one of whom, Zuri, died after 49 days. Now a group of doctors is calling on health leaders around the world to focus on these ‘small and vulnerable newborns’, suggesting a series of small interventions for pregnant women which they say could save a million babies’ lives every year. Family doctor Dr Ann Robinson discusses a new study looking at the most effective treatment for men with localised prostate cancer. She also looks at evidence from the USA that a common stomach infection caused by long term courses of antibiotics might be effectively treated by oral bacteria. And we hear from the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London where a programme for people with aphasia is giving intensive speech therapy to people who struggle to speak after having a stroke. Image Credit: Morten Falch Sortland Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury

Medical professionals in Khartoum tell us how they are managing to continue their work to treat people in hospitals despite the ongoing violence in Sudan. Some hospitals are out of service and doctors say they are struggling to secure medical supplies. There is evidence that high blood pressure in young people in England is going undiagnosed, and levels are rising in the USA. Dr Graham Easton looks at the latest. He also discusses new research which may lead to earlier diagnosis of the degenerative condition Parkinson’s disease by testing for a build-up of abnormal proteins. Ian Temple has Parkinson’s disease, but that hasn’t stopped him dancing. He is part of a group run by the English National Ballet for people with Parkinson’s. We hear from a dance class, and Elke Kalbe, Professor of medical psychology at the University of Cologne, explains how physical exercise like this might benefit people with the condition. And have you ever heard someone with a near death experience recount that their life flashed before their eyes? We discuss new neuroscience which might explain the phenomenon. Image credit: Ahmed Satti/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury

Addressing racial diversity amongst doctors can improve outcomes for people in their local communities. We speak to Dr Monica Peek, Doctor of Internal Medicine and Professor for Health Justice of Medicine at the University of Chicago, about a new study showing that a 10 per cent increase in black representation amongst clinicians increased life expectancy for black people by more than 30 days. BBC Health and Science Correspondent James Gallagher looks at an international decline in childhood vaccine take up during the Covid 19 pandemic. He discusses a new study which links taking a long afternoon nap with obesity and high blood pressure. And have you ever sensed that someone was with you when you were actually completely alone? It happened to polar explorer Luke Robertson in 2016 when he became the first Scottish person to trek solo to the South Pole. In his book ‘Presence: The Strange Science and True Stories of the Unseen Other’, psychologist Ben Alderson-Day tries to make sense of the phenomenon which has been known to affect many people from Polar explorers, to people with sleep disorders or Parkinson’s disease. Image Credit: Morsa Images Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury

More than a quarter of the world’s malaria cases happen in Nigeria according to the World Health Organisation. This week the country became the second, after Ghana to provisionally approve the use of malaria vaccine R21. Professor Matt Fox explains why scientists have called the vaccine a ‘world changer’. We hear from dementia nurse Kemi Reeves who supports people living with dementia in Los Angeles. Her project has recently been shown to reduce the cost of caring for people with Alzheimers. We also hear about a new piece of research from the UK showing that hearing aids may protect against a higher risk of dementia. As we learn more about ‘Long Covid’, we explore evidence that links breathlessness with having had disrupted sleep. And have you ever been told you grind your teeth? Author Naomi Alderman was shocked recently when visiting the dentist to be told she had a condition called bruxism and hadn’t even realised. We ask whether experiencing the Covid pandemic may have led to more of us griding and clenching our teeth. Image Credit: Halfpoint Images Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Clare Salisbury

Researchers in Zambia and Pakistan have shown that a drug which helps to stop bleeding in childbirth is safe to give by injection into a muscle - making it easier to save women’s lives where skilled help isn’t always close by. Tranexamic acid is usually given by a drip into a vein. But a new study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine compared that method with giving an injection into the thigh and administering it as a drink in a solution. They found that the injection was just as effective as the drip – which doctors say will save time and lives. We hear from one of the first people in the world to be given blood grown in a laboratory – and the scientist who made it possible. People with conditions like sickle cell anaemia could eventually benefit from this technology with lab blood tailored to their needs. Overweight people with painful arthritic joints might be told it’s due to “wear and tear”. But Dr Graham Easton explains how a new study shows that changes to cells within our joints cause inflammation – and it’s not simply a case of extra weight putting pressure on our knees and hips. Producer: Paula McGrath

Women do 90% of the work in global healthcare but hold only a quarter of leadership roles. We hear from an American doctor who says patients are missing out on the unique perspective of women because they aren’t involved in strategic decision-making. Margaret in Nairobi has set up a WhatsApp group to help to improve the rights of community healthcare workers and Indian doctor Snigdha explains how equality can only happen if childcare and access to education for women are improved. Pregnancy complications like pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes appear to make newborn babies “biologically younger” than those born to women who have healthy pregnancies. Researchers studied data from 1800 babies from 12 different parts of the United States and found that their so-called epigenetic age was reduced by around a week if their mothers had the conditions. As students across the world ask the popular artificial intelligence programme Chat GPT to write their essays, Professor Graham Easton assesses how much impact it could have on healthcare, from breast cancer screening to medical record keeping. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath Image Credit: Getty Images/ SDI Productions

Here on Health Check, we’re always sniffing out the best global health research for our listeners – and this week is no different. We’ll hear about a study in Sweden where researchers are testing whether smelling other people’s body odour could be a useful part of therapy for social anxiety. And what is One Health? A new report from the World Health Organization suggests a joint plan of action is needed to tackle animal and human health threats – and even to avert future pandemics. We’ll talk to intensive care doctor Matt Morgan about what we can learn from giraffes to treat brain injury, what a koala’s eating habits can reveal about gut health and how when faced with disease we might have a lot in common with ants… We’ll also have a report from Somalia where five consecutive failed rainy seasons have left five million people with acute food shortages and nearly two million children at risk of malnutrition. With a sixth season projected to fail, medics are warning of severe and long lasting health implications, particularly for children. And we’ll be joined by global health expert Dr Matt Fox to discuss how certain types of gut bacteria in babies could predict the chance of developing type 1 diabetes in later life. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Gerry Holt & Helena Selby

Babies, peanut butter and allergies; Psychologist Professor Elaine Fox on how to navigate change; how changing the clocks twice a year affects our health and why misophonia, the strong reaction to sounds of other people breathing, yawning or chewing, could be more common than we thought. Image Credit: Mohd Hafiez Mohd Razali / EyeEm

“Diet and exercise” has been the weight-loss mantra for decades but a drug designed for diabetes patients could now offer hope to people who are obese, at a time when researchers are warning that half of the world’s population are expected to be overweight or obese by 2035. One of the first to have injections of Semaglutide in the UK was Jan, who has battled with her weight since childhood. Once the medication took effect she lost four stone and said her hunger disappeared. Professor Stephen O’Rahilly from the University of Cambridge, explains how the drug mimics our body’s natural appetite signalling but its effects disappear once you stop the weekly injections. Family doctor Margaret McCartney says it might help some who are obese but warns that it has also gained a reputation as a “Hollywood skinny drug", reflecting some of society’s ideas about beauty and celebrity culture. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath (Photo: A jogger running around Clifton Downs, Bristol. Credit: Ben Birchall/PA)

A month on from the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, we assess what kind of impact the disaster may have had on mental health. We hear from Professor Metin Basoglu, an expert in earthquake trauma and director of the Istanbul Centre for Behavioural Sciences. He explains how it is a unique kind of trauma rooted in fear and compounded by the uncontrollable nature of earthquakes and the thousands of aftershocks that come following the initial disaster. Prof Basoglu tells us about the psychological treatment he developed based on his research with 10,000 survivors of the 1999 earthquake in Turkey and how an earthquake simulator can be used to tackle trauma symptoms. We hear from researchers in the US and Kenya about a new discovery that has ended 100 years of searching for an airborne chemical that could hold the key to the way tsetse flies mate – and help to tackle the diseases they spread in humans. Our guest in the studio is family doctor Ann Robinson who has the latest research on global health. Could socialising more often be linked to a longer life? And why might half of the world’s population be obese by 2035? We’ll explore all this and more. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Gerry Holt Image: Survivors of the earthquake in the city of Jenderes in the countryside of Aleppo, north-western Syria. Credit: NurPhoto / Contributor

We delve into the science of how some vaccines could have unexpected effects beyond their intended target. They are called “non-specific effects” and we are only just at the beginning of our understanding despite scientists documenting this curious biological phenomenon more than 100 years ago. One of the earliest vaccines to be studied was the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine for Tuberculosis, better known as the BCG. Professor Christine Stabell-Benn gives us a history lesson and brings us up to date with her team’s research at the Bandim Health Project in Guinea-Bissau, Western Africa. Also in the programme we hear about a new device for fixing bones being trialled in Gaza and Sri Lanka – and already in use in Ukraine. We hear from surgeons about what kind of patients they are treating and from UK researchers on hopes it will offer a low-cost, easy-to-make alternative in countries where there are shortages of these fixators. Our studio guest this week is BBC News health and science journalist Philippa Roxby who talks us through the latest after an 11-year-old girl in Cambodia died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu. Plus, we look at new studies on long Covid and how much exercise we should be aiming to do each day. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Gerry Holt and Emily Knight

From human milk banks to babies born during conflict, this week we're all about the health of children and newborns. The most vulnerable premature babies benefit from human milk, but their mother's milk is often not available. We visit a human milk bank to explore how donors are making a difference. Dr Ann Robinson shares some surprising new research looking at a novel way of preventing short-sightedness. And one year on from the start of the war, Smitha Mundasad talks to a Ukrainian mother who was forced to flee her country while 7 months pregnant. In conversation with Sasha Yarova from War Child, Smitha finds out about support available for the thousands of Ukrainian children now making new homes in countries around Europe. Presenter: Smitha Mundasad Producer: Gerry Holt & Ilan Goodman

Venomous snakebites are responsible for up to 150,000 deaths a year around the world – and they also leave around half a million survivors with life-changing injuries, including amputations and disfigurement. In this week’s Health Check we investigate why snakebite still disproportionately affects poorer, more rural communities, and what is being done to tackle the problem. We’ll talk to a mother in Kenya whose little girl was bitten by a snake not once, but twice, and to a doctor about how it feels to save lives. We’ll hear how anti-venoms are checked and how in many cases they are too expensive to afford and how there are not always enough supplies. And even when they are available some don’t work well. Smitha Mundasad also visits the Centre for Snakebite Research and Interventions in Liverpool, England, where she gets to see a snake being “milked” for its venom – and finds out how new and improved anti-venoms are being created, all with a little help from camels. Join us on a journey crossing continents, from the front line of the fight against snakebite to the hunt for new therapies. Image: Herpetologist Edouard Crittenden “milking” a snake for its venom. Presenter: Smitha Mundasad Producers: Gerry Holt & Julia Ravey

Can changes in the weather have an impact on our mental health? We go to Bangladesh in South Asia, a country on the front line of the impacts of climate change, where researchers have been exploring connections between incremental changes in heat and humidity, along with bigger impacts like flooding, and the levels of anxiety and depression in the population. They say their study has stark implications, not just for Bangladesh, but for many other countries too. Dr Belinda Fenty joins us bringing in some coffees in the studio. But can presenter Smitha Mundasad spot which cup has the caffeine? Dr Fenty talks us through what coffee actually does to the body and ponders other questions like how much is too much and why might you crash after a coffee high. She also take us through how to spot fake medicines and we take a look at an intriguing study on whether being married is good for your health. Presenter: Smitha Mundasad Producer: Gerry Holt (Photo: Pabna in Bangladesh at dusk. Credit: Emon Cena/Getty Images.)

This week we’re dedicating the programme to a common medical emergency – one that can be deadly within minutes without the right help to hand. A cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood around the body. We’ll hear from a doctor who battled for five hours to save a man 40,000ft up in the air; a student who’s teaching people not to be afraid to help in an emergency and we’ll hear a survivor’s story of life after cardiac arrest. Globally, there are tens of thousands of cardiac arrests outside of hospital every year. Fewer than one in 10 survive and this number varies depending on where you live, as does the availability of life-saving defibrillators – our studio guest Dr Belinda Fenty tells us more. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the first few minutes after the heart stops beating can be crucial. We have a live demo from a volunteer with UK charity St John Ambulance. Join us for an action-packed programme that might just help you save a life. Image: Dr Vishwaraj Vemala is thanked by the captain of the Air India flight after he saved a fellow passenger’s life Presenter: Smitha Mundasad Producer: Gerry Holt

Six months on from the worst flooding in Pakistan’s history, a medic in eastern Balochistan describes what he is seeing daily. Khalid Saleem, who works for the charity Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), says many people are still living in shelters at the side of the road and must walk miles if they need healthcare. There are high levels of malnutrition, malaria and skin conditions such as scabies. We also talk Professor Zainab Samad, from Aga Khan University in Islamabad, who is the author of a major new report on the country’s health. She describes how people in these areas were already worse off even before the floods and says it will take years to recover – but it is everyone’s responsibility to help make society healthier. We hear from Dr Lindsay Dewa and medical student Simi Adewale on their project to explore digital connection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Imperial College London worked with young people to make a short film about the impact on young people’s mental health. And our guest is family doctor Ann Robinson, who’ll discuss the latest studies and health news, including strict new alcohol guidance for Canada and how “bed dancing” is helping hospital patients. Image credit: Getty Images Presenter: Smitha Mundasad Producer: Gerry Holt

In this week’s episode we hear from two women who talk about what life is like with endometriosis, an incredibly common but debilitating condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other places in the body. Katherine from Ghana and Dee from Wales describe their long journeys to diagnosis and how the “invisible illness” affects every aspect of their lives, from mental health to work and relationships. We also hear from a researcher in the US who is studying the condition in minute detail in the hope that arming the scientific community with deeper knowledge will help lead to new treatments. Presenter Smitha Mundasad joins a singing group in London which aims to tackle post-natal depression among new mums. She hears how the project, which is rooted in research, is challenging them artistically and helping to reduce symptoms. Also joining us is Matt Fox, Professor of Epidemiology and Global Health at Boston University, who’ll discuss what progress is being made in the fight to eradicate rabies by 2030 and talk us through a study on the best music to fall asleep to… Zzz… Presenter: Smitha Mundasad Producer: Gerry Holt

In this week’s episode of Health Check, we meet the Poulin family who live in Thailand. They tell us about their long quest to have their little girl Rylae-Ann diagnosed with an incredibly rare disease. And that’s just the beginning of the story. Rylae-Ann was fortunate enough to have gene therapy on a clinical trial in Taiwan – and it has transformed her life – but it’s not a treatment that’s available to everyone. Joining presenter Smitha Mundasad in the studio is family doctor Graham Easton, who’ll discuss why that’s the case – and what the risks are around this experimental treatment and the ethics of diagnosing rare conditions. We’ll also hear from a scientist in Vancouver on her fascinating research which has discovered a compound in a sea sponge that blocks Covid-19 in human cells in the lab. And we’ll have the latest on the virus in China, as concerns grow about its spread ahead of the Lunar New Year, and a rather unusual study about a very small trial in London involving scars being treated using transplanted hair. Presenter: Smitha Mundasad Producer: Gerry Holt and Tess Davidson

Claudia Hammond explores the psychology of regret with an audience at the Cheltenham Science Festival. What role do rueful thoughts on "what might have been" play in our lives? Is regret a wasted emotion or does it have some hidden benefits? Joining Claudia on stage : Teresa McCormack - Professor of Cognitive Development at the School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast who researches how regret in childhood can shape our decisions; novelist and essayist Sophie White - whose latest novel The Snag List examines the opportunity to go back in life and follow the road not taken; Fuschia Sirois - Professor of social and health psychology at Durham University whose research examines the impact of those "what if" thoughts on our health and wellbeing. Producer Adrian Washbourne

Many people say that knitting or crochet helped ease their anxiety during the Covid-19 lockdowns. Claire Anketell set up free Yarn for Mental Health courses in Northern Ireland last year and Gemma McAdam says crochet helped to reduce her stress levels and she's now making blankets. Esther Rutter's book This Golden Fleece: A Journey through Britain's Knitted History aims to unpick what textiles mean to us - including how they became part of the treatment for mental health problems. Learning a skill by following a pattern, connecting with other people and being distracted from everyday worries tick some of the boxes which we associate with wellbeing. But it's hard to pin down exactly which elements can boost our mood. Dr Sarah McKay author of The Woman's Brain Book: the Neuroscience of Health, Hormones and Happiness assesses whether we need hard evidence to carry on casting on. The charity Fine Cell Work has been teaching prisoners embroidery, needlepoint and quilting for 25 years. CEO Victoria Gillies says the idea is to rehabilitate prisoners and ex-prisoners as they sew high-quality elaborate cushions and footstools. We hear about the difference it's made to stitchers like Ben. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath

It’s been another busy year on the BBC’s Health Check, where we’ve brought you the health and science stories that matter to you from around the globe, week in, week out. In this episode, Claudia Hammond is joined by Dr Ann Robinson to pick out some of the biggest breakthroughs of the year, from major advancements in gene therapy for two debilitating blood conditions, to a huge leap forward on treatment for dementia, and what looks like the conclusion of a long-running medical mystery. Claudia also hears about new findings on the best way to remember the important things in life – is it writing a list? Tech aides? Or a bit of both? And findings from a new German study on how psychology could be used to help close the gender pay gap. And we’ll look at the current rise in infections in Europe associated with the streptococcus bacteria – why is this happening now and how can you spot the signs of more serious infection? Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Gerry Holt

We’ve grown used to hearing about potential new treatments for Covid-19 – well here’s another. Researchers in Britain have, by chance, discovered that a tablet used to treat liver disease for decades could be repurposed to stop Covid-19 in its tracks. The drug appears to shut a crucial ‘doorway’ the virus uses to get into our cells – and scientists are excited about its potential to tackle different variants and provide a low-cost weapon in the pandemic. We hear how researchers used a combination of ‘mini organs’, animals and humans to show how it could work – and what needs to happen next to confirm the findings. The BBC’s Anna Holligan reports from the cycle-friendly Netherlands on an innovative new bike donation scheme that is being used to break down barriers and improve mental health for refugees and in deprived communities. And Claudia Hammond’s guest this week is Dr Graham Easton, a family doctor and professor of clinical communication skills at Queen Mary University of London. He delves into new research that suggests short bursts of vigorous activity could reduce risk of death and finds out which Olympic sports are most likely to cause injuries. Spoiler: It’s not the more traditional ones… (Picture: Liver organoid – or ‘mini-liver’ – infected with SARS-CoV-2 (red indicates the virus). Photo credit: Teresa Brevini). Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Gerry Holt

Claudia meets Professor Elizabeth Stokoe author of 'Crisis Talk' whose research shows when preventing a suicide, that words really do matter and can save lives during a crisis. Through analysing real time recordings of actual conversations between people in crisis and police negotiators, new findings highlight what can work and what doesn't. (Picture: Vector illustration of two profiles of women with speech bubbles inside their heads. Photo credit: JakeOlimb/Getty Images.) Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright

After years of setbacks, the announcement of the first drug to slow the brain's decline in Alzheimer's is being hailed as "momentous". What makes this breakthrough different? To study the effect of the environment on our health, scientists sometimes have to look to the past. We hear from the author of a study which has uncovered how the worst recession in US history may leave an indelible mark on how well people age. Claudia Hammond’s guest this week James Gallagher, the BBC's health and science correspondent, looks at a new single-dose treatment for sleeping sickness and claims it could help to eradicate transmission of the disease by 2030 and why monkeypox is being renamed. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Gerry Holt (Picture: Human brain scan in a neurology clinic. Photo credit: Andrew Brookes/Getty Images.)

Ask 40,000 surgeons from around the world what they would pick to scientifically investigate and what do they choose? They voted for a new trial to establish whether changing to new surgical gloves and clean instruments just before abdominal wounds are closed up during surgery, would reduce infection. Thirteen thousand operations in seven countries later (in Benin, Ghana, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa) the answer to the most common complication of surgery is in, and the results are published in the journal, the Lancet. Co-author Aneel Bhangu, senior lecturer in surgery at the University of Birmingham, tells Claudia how the findings of this apparently simple step, will change surgical guidelines around the world. We all have a space around us that we claim as our own. If anybody comes too close, we feel uncomfortable or even threatened. But what has social distancing and the pandemic done to our personal space? Science writer David Robson reports from one of the biggest brain sciences conferences in the world, Neuroscience 2022, in San Diego. New research using virtual reality, reveals that our personal space had shrunk. But, crucially, while our personal force field has reduced, it has also hardened. And according to the study, David says, we are now much less tolerant if this new, reduced 'peripersonal distance' is breached. And BBC global health correspondent, Naomi Grimley, reports on the challenge to China’s zero-Covid strategy as coronavirus cases rise, Africa’s first conference on the disabling condition club foot and a new study on acupuncture for pregnant women with lower back pain. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Fiona Hill (Photo: Operating theatre staff wearing scrubs, one helping the other put on gloves. Credit: Jochen Sand/Getty Images)

Ayoka from Atlanta, Georgia in the US is desperate to have a baby and her family is helping to pay for her IVF treatment. But Ayoka knows that she carries a serious genetic condition, Fragile X, which she does not want to pass on to her children. She tells Claudia Hammond what it means to know that she would be prevented from having an abortion, even if pre-natal testing revealed her unborn baby had the inherited condition. That is because the state of Georgia, up until yesterday when the ban was successfully challenged in court, has restricted termination after six weeks of pregnancy. This restriction is too early for genetic testing to have taken place. So what will she do if the ban is reinstated? Lebanon has experienced profound economic, financial and civil shocks in recent years as well as absorbing almost a million and a half refugees, a third of its total population. The strains on its infrastructure are acute and for the first time in almost thirty years, there have been outbreaks of cholera, claiming lives of young and old alike, just as there is a global shortage of cholera vaccines. Lebanon’s Minister of Public Health, Dr Firass Abiad, tells Claudia about the steps that are being taken to treat, vaccinate and restore vital infrastructure to stop the disease spreading. And the BBC’s Science and Health correspondent, James Gallagher, brings the latest medical findings, including how armadillos showed that the leprosy bacterium can regenerate organs, how children’s different births cause different microbiomes and different reactions to vaccinations and which smells give you a better night’s sleep. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Fiona Hill (Photo: A pregnant woman lying down. Credit: Brooke Fasani Auchincloss/Getty Images)

South Africa's anti-retroviral programme to treat HIV infection is the largest in the world with 5.5 million people in treatment. It’s transformed this disease from an automatic death sentence, to something that can be managed as a chronic illness and the government is determined to expand the programme and get more people with HIV in treatment. It’s an ambitious plan and Claudia Hammond hears how psychological tools called "nudges", drawn from behavioural economics, are being used and tested as low-cost interventions to persuade more people into treatment. Dr Sophie Pascoe, Co-Director of South Africa’s first HIV nudge unit, Indlela, describes how the new techniques are being used. And the plight of the Covid-19 shielders. Shannon is so vulnerable to catching the virus that she has lived apart from her husband and teenage daughter for almost two years. What’s it like having your life on hold and not being able to hug or kiss your loved ones? And Matt Fox, Professor of Global Health Epidemiology and Boston University joins Claudia to discuss the increase in cholera outbreaks and the shortage of vaccines and the new UK trial to manufacture blood in a laboratory. Image: Beaded HIV/AIDS ribbon brooch among beaded South African flag keyrings, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Credit: Neil Overy/Getty Images) Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Fiona Hill

Claudia Hammond discovers that some livers have the potential for extraordinary longevity and after a long life in a transplant donor, can survive for many more years in a transplant recipient. Livers over one hundred years old, called centurian livers by researchers, have been identified and many are still going strong. The new study has important implications for the future of liver transplants because donated organs from some older-age people were also found to last longer than those from young-age donors, a finding that Dr Christine Hwang, from the University of Texas in the USA and study co-author, tells Claudia upturns conventional thinking about the healthiest livers to transplant. The accuracy of forehead thermometers as well as pulse oximeters on darker skin is an issue that's received widespread attention, but what about the medical need to accurately measure skin pigmentation for psoriasis, eczema, skin cancers and other health conditions? Dr Ophelia Dadzie from the British Association of Dermatologists and the Hillingdon Hospital in London has been developing a scientific way to measure skin colour. Her method uses eumelanin, a skin pigment, and she's created a new scale to objectively assess peoples’ skin colour. And BBC correspondent, Dr Smitha Mundasad, joins Claudia and reports on the growing Ebola outbreak in Uganda, the risks of herbal supplements on our livers and brings the latest evidence on the health benefits of the weighted blanket. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Fiona Hill (Picture: A doctor Transporting a Human Organ for Transplant. Photo credit: Photographereddie/Getty Images.)

Health-threatening fungal infections are on the rise and the World Health Organisation identifies the pathogens which pose the greatest risk to human health. Dr Graham Easton, family doctor and Professor of Medical Education at Queen Mary, University of London, tells Claudia how growing resistance to anti-fungal medication resistance, just like antibiotic resistance, is making the problem even worse. Graham also highlights growing health concerns about the recreational use of the drug Nitrous Oxide or laughing gas around the world. One hundred and fifty million people are thought to have Long Covid, debilitating symptoms which persist long after Covid-19 infection, yet the condition is still little understood. To spell out what we do, and don’t, know about Long Covid, a patient and a professor have got together to write The Long Covid Handbook. Patient advocate and film maker Gez Medinger and Professor of Immunology at Imperial College, London, Danny Altman, describe the gaps in medical knowledge and the impact on sufferers of the slow progress on diagnostics and treatment. A recent survey in Chile revealed mental health to be the top health concern in the country. Jane Chambers reports on a Santiago charity called the Itaca Foundation, finding great success by pairing up vulnerable younger people with older people for mutual support. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Fiona Hill (Picture: A woman resting after running with a protective face mask in the city. Photo credit: Drazen Zigic/Getty Images.)

After decades of progress – how can we stop the pandemic, climate change and conflict around the world from turning back the clock when it comes to women and children’s health? We hear from UNICEF’s Dr Jennifer Requejo about a new report which examines the impact of natural disasters, war and the pandemic and offers some ideas of how to catch up on targets for improvements. The BBC’s medical and science correspondent James Gallagher thinks he hasn’t had Covid-19 – and takes a blood test to see whether there are any tell-tale signs that he might have been infected unknowingly. And there’s news of how Covid affected life expectancy and whether spending time in the countryside or by the beach might make a difference to how long we live. And a study which suggests that 5 hours is the minimum number of hours sleep we need to stay healthy. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath (Picture: Close up of a mother carrying a baby boy in a fabric sling. Photo credit: PixelCatchers/Getty Images.)

If you’re trying to work out what’s healthy to eat and what to avoid – there’s a new five star rating system. Researchers in the US have looked at previous studies which examined how much certain foods increased the risk of developing a particular disease – or if they could even protect you. Dr Chris Murray from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Washington says he hopes the star ratings will help people to make informed decisions about their health. We hear from Dr Tammy Tong, a nutritional epidemiologist at Oxford University about the strengths and limitations of this approach. Millions of people around the world use open-pit toilets – a hole in the ground where they can see and smell other people’s waste. The walls are often made of bits of metal and cloth and they are often shared between many families, provoking feelings of shame and disgust. Dr Ian Ross from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has been measuring the difference a nicer toilet can have on people’s quality of life in Mozambique – with help from Zaida Adriano Cumbe who talked to families involved in the study in Maputo. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath (Picture: Tacos with grilled steak and vegetables, avocado, tomato, cilantro and lime. Photo credit: Istetiana/Getty Images.)

There’s encouraging news about a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease following years of disappointing drug trials. The drug lecanemab is a monoclonal antibody which is designed to remove clumps of amyloid proteins which damage the brain. Professor Bart de Strooper who’s director of the UK Dementia Research Institute explains how patients who had regular infusions of the drug had their rate of cognitive decline reduced by 27% when compared to those given a placebo. Sewage testing has been used around the world during the Covid pandemic – and at the moment children in London are being vaccinated against polio after the virus was found in waste water. The BBC’s Health and Science Correspondent James Gallagher takes us on a tour of a sewer in southern England. Claudia Hammond’s guest this week Professor Graham Easton from Queen Mary University of London looks at whether folic acid could reduce suicide and self harm – and whether it’s ok to take anti-depressants during pregnancy. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath (Picture: Pharmaceutical research into brain disorders. Photo credit: Westend61/Getty Images.)

Waterborne diseases are on the rise in Sindh province in Pakistan where water levels are still high after record floods. BBC Urdu’s Riaz Sohail visited the region and tells us about the conditions in roadside camps and a hospital in Dadu district. A recently published Motor Neuron Disease trial suggests that a new drug could make a fundamental difference for some people living with the disease. And how does healthcare work if a doctor can only be reached by boat, helicopter or plane? BBC’s Marnie Chesterton went to Greenland and spoke to a healthcare worker in the small village of Narsarsuaq. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Florian Bohr (Picture: Flood-affected people on the road in Dadu city, Pakistan. Photo credit: Jan Ali Laghari/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.)

Egypt has almost eliminated the 'silent killer' hepatitis C – less than a decade after having the highest number of cases of the virus in the world. A new report from the World Economic Forum details how they managed to screen almost the whole adult population and treated those infected with the virus which can cause liver damage and even cancer. Professor Imam Waked from the National Liver Institute explains how other countries like Rwanda and Georgia are now following suit – but not quite at the rapid pace which Egypt managed. There is currently a rise in cases of cholera in Syria, and outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever in Pakistan, but for opposite reasons. The first is caused by a drought, and the latter by a flood. And what psychology can tell us about the behaviour of crowds when there’s a false alarm but people feel genuine fear. And James Gallagher reveals what nightmares and learning a musical instrument tell us about our brains. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath (Picture: Labourers line up for Hepatitis C screening at a construction site in Egypt in 2017. Photo credit: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images.)

The trial of a malaria vaccine in Burkina Faso has revealed promising results, protecting young children from being infected by the parasite for a second season. Most malaria deaths are in children under five in sub-Saharan Africa. We hear from one of the research team Professor Katie Ewer, about how difficult it is to create a malaria vaccine. It’s hoped that the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer in Pune, India, will make enough of the vaccine to make it available to every child who needs it in the next few years. A new study has shown that forehead thermometers are not as accurate at picking up high temperatures in black patients as they are in people with white skin. Family doctor Ann Robinson explains how worrying symptoms could be missed in some patients, leading to health inequalities if we rely on devices which are only tested on white skin. And how walking can help to reduce our risk of dementia – and also help tired parents get their crying babies off to sleep. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath (Picture: A child receives a malaria vaccination at Yala Sub-County hospital, Kenya, in October 2021. Photo credit: Brian Ongoro/AFP/Getty Images.)

China has approved the first nasal Covid vaccine inhaled up the nose. James Gallagher, BBC Health and Science correspondent explains how a sniffed vaccine primes the immune system. Plus Claudia hears about the health consequences of a ban on abortion in some US states for young women who develop a breast cancer diagnosis during pregnancy. Professor Virginia Borges and Assistant Professor Nicole Christian from the University of Colorado explain the difficult decisions women are having to make. And resolution of the mystery pneumonia identified in Argentina. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Coronavirus image. Credit: fotograzia / Getty Images)

Statins save lives by lowering the level of 'bad' cholesterol in our blood, reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes. But warnings about potential aches and pains in our muscles has put off some people from taking them. UK scientists have analysed the best statin trials and found that these side effects are actually rare – and the benefits outweigh the risks. We hear from Professor Colin Baigent in Oxford about how this study should reassure those who need to take them. On Health Check we like to bring you the best possible evidence – and for that we rely on research which has been peer reviewed. Professor Matt Fox from Boston University explains how scrutinising the research of his peers takes time and is unpaid – a situation which he believes is unsustainable. The bleeding disorder haemophilia B means the blood doesn’t clot properly, so a cut or even a bruise can have serious consequences. Elliott who lives in the UK is one of the first people to try a new gene therapy which has effectively cured his haemophilia. And we hear news of a study which claims that tea drinkers might live longer. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath (Picture: A generic pack of statins with a stethoscope. Photo credit: Roger Ashford/Getty Images.)

In the week that a case of Ebola has been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the WHO calls for support to help at-risk countries to make lifesaving drugs available in case the virus spreads. The UK researchers who saved many thousands of lives with Covid treatments are now testing antivirals against monkeypox. And New Scientist's medical writer Clare Wilson explains how long Covid lingers in our bodies - and why thinking hard makes you tired. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Image: Health workers helping an Ebola patient outside an isolation tent, Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo. Credit: Fiston Mahamba / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images)

A new Covid vaccine – which targets both the original virus and one of the latest Omicron variants – has been approved for use in the UK. About half of the 26 million older and vulnerable adults in the UK who are due a booster this autumn should get the new vaccine. There’s news of British scientists changing the blood group of donated kidneys – which could boost the supply of organs for transplant. Professor Magdi Yaqoob says switching to blood type O means the organs can be transplanted into any patient. We hear from Ravi Singh whose life was transformed last month when he got a new kidney from a live donor. He wants everyone to discuss donating with their family and to carry a donor card. The pandemic delayed hospital treatment for many – so to help deal with waiting lists some hospitals are trying out 'overlapping' surgery – with one senior surgeon supervising two operating theatres, and more junior surgeons carrying out the more straightforward parts. When it was tried in the US there were concerns around consent and safety but we hear how only doing 30 minute procedures means that a month’s worth of operations can be done in a day. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath (Picture: Surgeons in an operating room with an organ transplant box. Photo credit: Plan Shooting 2/Imazins/Getty Images.)

In the pandemic when intensive care units were full and visitors were not allowed some families kept in touch using phones and tablets. A new study in the UK shows that this “virtual” visiting did help to reduce the distress felt by relatives – and the practice still continues to keep families in touch when they live far apart. Training relatives to give medicines at home to ease their loved ones’ symptoms at the end of life was pioneered in Australia. This week a specially-adapted version of the caring@home programme is being launched to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island families. The practice is catching on in the UK - we hear from Mark who helped ease his mother’s pain and nausea at the end of her life. Dr Graham Easton from Barts and the London has news of a study from India showing how small differences in the beating heart could help to predict the risk of diabetes developing. He also warns that doctors need to stop fat shaming people to help them lose weight – and how blood pressure should be taken in both arms. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath (Picture: A patient in an intensive care unit on a ventilator. Photo credit: Jackyenjoyphotography/Getty Images.)

In the cut throat world of work, can bosses be kind? Claudia Hammond unpicks the psychological evidence from around the world to find out if it’s possible for managers to be both kind all the time and successful. The quest starts with Thom Elliot Co-founder of Pizza Pilgrims in the UK, who deliberately set out to foster a kind culture in a sector not exactly known for its benevolence. They're joined for pizza by Prof Robin Banerjee, architect of the Kindness Test to discuss the findings and examine whether kindness in business really does result in success. Joe Folkman is the perfect person to ask. He runs an evidence based leadership development firm in the US. It turns out there's a strong correlation between being likeable and effectiveness. Such concepts are backed up by a relatively new field of research called 'ethical leadership' pioneered by Professor Mike Brown. Claudia meets former head teacher Ros McMullen who tells some home truths about leadership in a culture of relentless pressure and accountability. Plus Lisa Smosarski, editor in Chief of Stylist magazine shares shocking office stories of the 'Devil Wears Prada' era and discusses wider societal shifts that may be contributing to a kinder culture in her industry. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright

What can the latest research tell us about whether there is any such thing as pure kindness? Claudia Hammond meets a man who has done an exceptionally altruistic act for someone who was seriously ill. What prompts acts of kindness like this? Specialists from the fields of psychology and neuroscience unpick the evidence. Producer: Geraldine Fitzgerald

As Marburg virus cases are confirmed in Ghana, Dr Graham Easton discusses the importance of a swift response. BBC Africa correspondent Charles Mgbolu reports from Nigeria on the relationship between monkeypox emergence and smallpox eradication. Plus Claudia hears good news from Dr Jaekeun Park at the University of Maryland about progress on making a universal flu vaccine. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Marburg virus, cut-away illustration. Photo credit: Roger Harris/Science Photo Library/Getty Images.)

As Covid cases rise new recommendations from European health agencies back over 60s to get boosted. Professor Monica Lakhanpaul from University College London explains that this is before the rollout of updated vaccines to target specific variants. Monica also discusses her own research with village communities in India working to benefit infant nutrition. Also, with the numbers of teenagers experiencing mental health difficulties rising in many parts of the world some schools have turned to mindfulness classes. But how effective are they? Co-author professor Willem Kuyken discusses the results of the long awaited eight year study. Plus is there such a thing as too much confidence? Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Photo: Multiple vials of booster vaccine on a conveyor belt in a pharmaceutical factory. Credit: SDI Productions/Getty Images)

Claudia Hammond is at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London looking at the latest medical research. Claudia speaks to Professor Tamar Makin and designer Dani Clode to find out whether a third thumb might be handy. Dr Simon Gubbins explains how to use genetic technology to head off the world’s next pandemic before it happens. And Claudia hears from Dr Georgina Girt why llamas are special. They’re certainly cute with their pointy ears and their long eyelashes, but they can also develop tiny antibodies that could protect humans against numerous different diseases. Plus senior lecturer, Chloe James on the super powers of bacteriophages and how they work as puppet masters. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Health Check presenter Claudia Hammond tries on The Third Thumb at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. Photo credit: BBC.)

Online misinformation about polio has gone global after the detection of so called vaccine-derived poliovirus in London sewage. BBC health and science correspondent James Gallagher explains what’s really happening. And Claudia Hammond talks to Professor Beate Kampmann from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who explains that while vaccine-derived polio virus has been reported in 24 countries since 2021 the vaccination programme has protected millions of people. Plus why looking after your body clock can be good for your health. Professor Russell Foster unpicks how our circadian rhythms can have an impact on the way our bodies deal with the food we eat, the exercise we do and medications we take. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Someone using a mobile phone indoors. Photo credit: Charday Penn/Getty Images.)

New research reveals a poor immunity boost after infection with the Omicron variant. Might this explain why getting Covid again has been more common with this wave? BBC News health reporter, Smitha Mundasad unpicks the data. And the first World Health Organisation mental health report in two decades calls for change. Dévora Kestel, Director of WHO’s Mental Health and Substance Use Department joins Claudia Hammond to discuss the findings. Plus Professor Russell Foster on why looking after our body clocks can help with a good night's sleep. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Covid-19 Omicron illustration. Photo credit: Sakchai Vongsasiripat/Getty Images.)

News about new next generation Covid vaccines that target specific variants is discussed with studio guest, Dr Ann Robinson. Professor Russell Foster talks to Claudia about the science of circadian rhythms and how taking more notice of our body clocks could help us live healthier lives. Plus anaesthetist Dr Niek Sperna Weiland explains why the inhaled gases used to put us to sleep during operations can be so damaging to the environment. And how our eyes are a window into the health of our hearts. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Image: A healthcare worker prepares a dose of COVID-19 Vaccine. Image credit: Morsa Images / Getty Images)

Brain scans can reveal new ways to diagnose and potentially treat psychiatric, psychological and neurological conditions. But why has the promise been so slow to turn into reality? Claudia Hammond is joined by Sophie Scott, Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and also by neuroscientist Scott Marek of Washington University in St Louis. Plus one year on since fluoride toothpaste was added to the World Health Organisation's essential medicines list, Charles Mgbolu reports from Lagos about a market flooded with non-fluoridated toothpaste amid continued oral health concerns. And shocking results showing a global shortage of 43 million medical staff are discussed with study lead author Professor Rafael-Lozano. Plus studio guest family doctor Ann Robinson says there’s good news about new evidence for treating Crohn’s disease. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: A patient in MRI scanner with a nurse explaining the scan. Photo credit: ER Productions Limited/Getty Images.)

Claudia discusses concerns about monkeypox misinformation and stigma with Andy Seale, Senior Strategic Advisor, department of HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections at the World Health Organisation. How psychologists are trialling a radio drama for tackling external and domestic insurgent attacks in Burkina Faso. Associate Professor Rezarta Bilali explains why the drama was needed. Plus Claudia hears of a new study on whether growing up in a city, town or countryside might impact our navigation skills, and visits the Chelsea Flower Show in London to examine the evidence for how much of an effect gardening might have on a person’s mental health. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Monkeypox virus. Photo credit: Kontekbrothers/Getty Images.)

Monkeypox is spreading in more than 20 countries where previously it has not been seen, but BBC Health reporter Smitha Mundasad explains that this is not a new disease. Presenter Claudia Hammond hears of an outbreak of a more serious strain in an area of the Democratic Republic of Congo that has no experience of Monkeypox. Professor Wim van Damme got in touch about his research trip to Maniema, a rural DRC province with more than 500 cases and 50 deaths. Plus, professor of virology Penny Moore discusses Covid variants in South Africa. Might waves of the virus be more predictable as surges appear to be settling into a six-monthly pattern? And a helpful new study on creams for childhood eczema. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright Photo copyright: Professor Wim van Damme

Reports from North Korea have suggested a scarcity of data on healthcare provision but Claudia hears from Professor Hazel Smith who has researched North Korea for over thirty years that there is good information about health services. And do doctors have a professional duty to be kind? The General Medical Council in the UK are consulting on whether to require doctors to ‘treat patients with kindness’ and some have not taken kindly to the idea. Louella Vaughan, a hospital consultant in acute medicine and family doctor Ann Robinson debate the issues. Plus Claudia’s studio guest today is Graham Easton, Professor of Clinical Communication skills at Queen Mary, University of London. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Pedestrians walk past cherry blossom trees near the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang in April 2022. Photo credit: Kim Won Jin/AFP/Getty Images.)

Brand new results of a fourth Covid booster trial, with a mix and match approach including half doses, reveals good news for global vaccine rollout. BBC Health and Science correspondent James Gallagher explains. Plus evidence from Ohio where Professor Ihuoma Eneli's new paper shows how weight gain increased markedly in low-income US children and teenagers during early Covid-19. And the science of dreams, Claudia Hammond speaks to Brazilian neuroscientist Sidarta Ribeiro about his new wide ranging book The Oracle of Night. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: A patient who has received a fourth Covid-19 vaccination in Rieti, Italy. Photo credit: Riccardo Fabi/NurPhoto/Getty Images.)

Claudia is joined by Matt Fox, Professor of Global Health at Boston University to discuss evidence investigating a hybrid combination of Covid vaccines and prior infection. Dr Vineet Arora explains how best to support health care workers who have received online attacks for trying to correct inaccurate information during the Pandemic. And advice for parents on how to cope when their children are having mental health problems from authors Roz Shafran, Alice Welham and Ursula Saunders. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Illustration of antibodies responding to a coronavirus infection. Photo credit: Juan Gaertner/Science Photo Library/Getty Images.)

Update on the latest global research into Covid-19 with BBC Health Reporter Smitha Mundasad and Claudia talks to the authors of a new study charting brain development over the human life span. Could this be a useful tool to understanding how the brain varies over populations and over time and what are the ethical questions involved? Plus if you carry excess weight, what difference does it make to your health if those extra kgs are round your waist or hips? Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Neurologists working with CT brain scan images in a laboratory. Photo credit: Gorodenkoff/Getty Images.)

Using the results of the Kindness Test, which 60,000 people took part in, Claudia Hammond asks whether we are kinder to people who we think are like us? And what happens once we move beyond family and friends to acquaintances and strangers. What can the evidence tell us about who it is that we choose to be kind to and why? Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright

Claudia Hammond talks to Chris Gill, Associate Professor at Boston University School of Public Health and co-author of a new paper revealing the devastating impact of Covid in Zambia. By conducting post mortem Covid swabs on more than 1000 bodies taken to a morgue in Lusaka, his work suggests a staggering 90% undercount of cases and goes a long way to countering the so called African Paradox – a narrative suggesting that Africa skipped Covid. Jane Chambers reports from Chile on progress to get 90% of people living with HIV to know their status, have access to antiretroviral therapy and to achieve viral suppression. Out of an estimated 77,000 people living with HIV in Chile – 70,000 know their condition. But there’s one statistic which is worrying health care professions. 16,000 individuals are aware they have HIV but aren’t taking the free medication which they’re entitled to. What are the factors influencing this decision and what are the consequences? Plus Claudia’s studio guest Professor Monica Lakhanpaul of University College London discusses her brand new research on how to encourage young people to take Asthma treatment, and good news that Guinea Worm disease may be on the brink of eradication. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: A woman wearing a face mask stands on a busy street in Zambia. Photo credit: PixelCatchers/Getty Images.)

Claudia Hammond talks to an Ukrainian psychotherapist about the increased demand for her services since Russia invaded her country. Is multiple sclerosis caused by a virus? Health Check looks at the latest evidence pointing to Epstein Barr virus, which more commonly causes glandular fever or mononucleosis. The discovery offers hope for a vaccine and new more effective treatments. Family doctor Ann Robinson joins Claudia to discuss the Epstein Barr findings as well as the extra risk of being infected with both Covid and flu viruses, and a promising gene therapy for haemophilia A. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: A man and woman walk through rubble in the Podilskyi district of Kyiv, capital of Ukraine on 23 March 2022. Photo credit: Yuliia Ovsiannikova/Ukrinform/Future Publishing/Getty Images.)

The number of new Covid-19 infection cases worldwide has jumped by 10%. Tabitha Mwangi, Programme Manager at Cambridge Africa at Cambridge University, gives us a rundown of how that overall increase is playing out in different parts of the world. Hong Kong had been one of the most successful places at controlling Covid-19 but recently faced the highest death rates in the world. What went wrong? We hear from Vivian Wong, a public health advisor and honorary professor of Chinese Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. And how are pandemic restrictions impacting people’s mental wellbeing? Christian Chan, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Hong Kong and a warden at a student residence, shares his thoughts. Also, do you think you’re more likely to catch Covid-19 from a friend or a stranger? Ashley Whillans, a social psychologist at Harvard Business School in the US, tells us what happened when she asked people this very question. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Samara Linton (Picture: A worker cleans an area of Hong Kong International Airport on 21 March 2022 amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo credit: Dale de la Rey/AFP/Getty Images.)

Although the world might not feel like a very kind place at the moment, this might be just the time when acts of kindness matter the most. This week, Claudia Hammond reveals the results of the world's largest public science project on kindness. With over 60,000 participants from 144 countries, this unique study helps to fill some of the research gaps and learn more about how kindness is viewed within society at large. What is kindness? Are we more or less kind than before? Where do acts of kindness take place? Are certain types of people kinder than others? Is kindness good for us? Professor Robin Bannerjee, University of Sussex, led the study and joins Claudia in the studio to unpick the results. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Samara Linton

Claudia Hammond explores how children think with two psychologists; Dr Victoria Simms from Ulster University who researches how children’s understanding of maths develops and professor Teresa McCormack from Queens University Belfast who researches how children understand time. The discussion was recorded in front of an audience at the Northern Ireland Science Festival in February 2020. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Caroline Steel (Photo: A group of preschool children sitting on the floor with their legs crossed and their arms raised in the air. Credit: FatCamera/Getty Images)

Health issues and medical breakthroughs from around the world. Hundreds of thousands are fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, and not all of them are Ukrainians. The country has a sizeable population of overseas medical students, many from African and Asian countries. Mathew Kalu is a Nigerian-born medical doctor who has lived in Ukraine for 12 years. He tells us why Ukraine is the go-to destination for so many future doctors and how he is helping them leave the country safely. Is the news cycle making children anxious? Consultant Clinical Psychologist Jane Gilmour tells us that children may be more aware of the news cycle than we may think and shares tips for comforting them in the face of uncertainty. And Monday marked Rare Disease Day. We hear from Alan Bentley, whose rare skin condition baffled more than a dozen doctors, and how Professor Edel O'Toole helped him access a life-transforming drug. This week's guest is Dr Graham Easton, family doctor and Professor of Clinical Communication Skills at Queen Mary University. Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Samara Linton (Main Image: Children watching television. Image credit: Peter Cade / Getty Images)

This week on Health Check, polio makes an unwelcome return to the African continent and measles cases are soaring among children in Afghanistan. We hear from WHO spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris and Médecins Sans Frontières’ Sarah Vuylsteke and Maxime Pirard who are based at Herat Regional Hospital in western Afghanistan. We also hear how the pandemic has impacted children worldwide, from disruption to routine vaccination services to studies suggesting high mortality rates among children with Covid-19 in sub-Saharan Africa. Now Covid-19 has exposed gaps in health care systems and inequalities in societies around the world. We discuss how the pandemic has galvanised calls for healthcare independence for African countries, and Dr Yen Lam Minh and Dr Louise Thwaites tell us about the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit programme which will develop high-quality intensive care in Vietnam. Our guest is public health expert Dr Tabitha Mwangi who managed the Cambridge Africa programme at Cambridge University. Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producers: Samara Linton and Ilan Goodman (Picture: Afghan internally-displaced children stand outside their mud house at Shaidayee refugee camp in Herat province in February 2022. Photo credit: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images.)

People die waiting for replacement hearts, lungs and kidneys. Could genetically modified pigs be the solution to a worldwide shortage of organ donors? We meet the teams that have had impressive recent successes transplanting pig organs into people. We’ll explore the huge leaps of genetic engineering that are making 'xenotransplantation' possible and ask if it’s even ethical to try. In the studio with Marnie Chesterton, Dr Graham Easton guides us through the science of getting pig organs to work in human bodies. We also hear from transplant surgeon Dr Devagourou Velayoudam and Professor Nadey Hakim, on how these breakthroughs might benefit India and Nigeria, and other countries which don’t have the same medical and research resources of the US. Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Ilan Goodman (Picture: Two pigs on a farm. Photo credit: Charity Burggraaf/Getty Images.)

Breast cancer makes up a third of all cancer diagnoses for black women and for those with the most common type of cancer, ER-positive (estrogen or oestrogen positive) cancers, black women are 42% more likely to die of the disease than white women. The reasons for these disparities are complex and include socio-economic factors and racism. There is also a historical absence of samples from black women in research databases and lack of inclusion in clinical trials. Researchers at Stanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute at La Jolla, California in the US have discovered significant differences at the molecular level which could explain some of the disparities. In research published in the journal, Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology, Dr Svasti Haricharan and her team found significant differences in black women in the all-important DNA damage repair genes, the proteins which form our body’s first line of defence against damage to our DNA. Dr Haricharan tells Marnie Chesterton that these findings have real-world implications for the treatments black women should be offered and when. GP Dr Ann Robinson joins Marnie to discuss a new study which suggests people with high blood pressure who take paracetamol on prescription, could be increasing their risk of heart attacks and strokes. University of Edinburgh researchers published in the journal, Circulation, trial results which suggest that although taking the painkiller for headaches and fever is safe, doctors should think twice about the risks and benefits to patients taking it over many months. The trial tracked volunteers, two-thirds of whom were taking drugs for high blood pressure, or hypertension. Paracetamol, the results showed, increased blood pressure, which is one of the most important risk factors for heart attacks and strokes. Group B Streptococcus is an infection which causes almost 100,000 new-born deaths, at least 46,000 stillbirths, and significant long-term disability for babies around the world. The bacterium is harmless for most pregnant women who carry it but it can be extremely serious when it passes to babies during pregnancy, childbirth or in the early weeks of life. James Gallagher reports on the merits of testing for Group B Strep and talks to Dr Kate Walker, Professor of Obstetrics at the University of Nottingham in the UK about a large, randomised controlled trial she is leading which will provide much-needed evidence about how best to protect babies from this dangerous infection. And Dr Ann Robinson shares with Marnie new research which focuses on the best ways to avoid and treat gout and how playing games on your mobile could help you to quit smoking. Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producers: Paula McGrath and Fiona Hill (Picture: A senior woman looking through a window. Photo credit: FG Trade/Getty Images.)

The pandemic has caused many people to die alone in hospital intensive care units - whilst others have died at home without the support and pain relief they needed. The Lancet Commission on the Value of Death is calling for a radical change in how we approach death. Co-author Dr Libby Sallnow explains what makes a good death, and palliative care consultant Dr M R Rajagopal shares how communities have transformed palliative care in Kerala, India. Mixed messaging around Covid vaccines for pregnant women have resulted in a low uptake, leaving mothers and babies at risk of infection and serious complications. Dr Sarah Stock, an Honorary Consultant and Subspecialist in Maternal and Fetal Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, reassures us that vaccines are safe in pregnancy. Following the Spotify misinformation row, Marnie Chesterton asks how should streaming platforms respond to false claims about Covid-19? Professor Matt Fox from Boston University says they have a responsibility to tackle misinformation but warns that censorship may do more harm than good. Also, how a new scan is revealing hidden lung damage in long Covid, and should our chocolate treats come with picture warnings of clogged arteries? Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Paula McGrath and Samara Linton (Picture: A senior woman being comforted by a doctor in a hospice. Photo credit: Pornpak Khunatorn/Getty Images.)

Positive results for a handful of patients on a trial in the United States offers hope for the millions of people around the world living with sickle cell disease. Doctors say the gene-editing therapy literally 'turns back the clock' by reducing the number of red blood cells that are sickle-shaped and increasing the type that a baby has, which can carry more oxygen around the body. Other cheaper, more widely-available medications can work, but we hear how the health of sickle cell patients depends on where they live. After two years of caring for patients with Covid-19, many healthcare workers are exhausted. This week’s guest, Graham Easton, who is Professor of Communication Skills at Barts and The Royal London Hospital, explains how mistakes can happen when doctors carry out repetitive tasks when they are tired. Could changing your asthma inhaler be better for you and the planet? We hear from Caroline and her son Sebastian, who found that switching to dry-powder inhalers transformed their lives. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath and Samara Linton (Picture: Scientist analysing a blood sample in a laboratory. Photo credit: Krisanapong Detraphiphat/Getty Images.)

As Omicron spreads across the US, Claudia Hammond is joined by Professor Matt Fox from Boston University to discuss the latest Covid-19 news, including President Biden’s pledge to make high-quality masks available across the country. Wheezing and feeling breathless is a fact of life for the 262 million people around the world who have asthma. Some worry that exercise will worsen their asthma symptoms. But UK researchers say that evidence shows that all people with asthma can exercise safely – even if that’s just walking across a room. Lung specialist Andrew Wilson says that the risks are low as long as the symptoms are controlled with medication. Health psychologist Leanne Tyson recommends setting small goals and regular rewards to help keep up the habit. Asthma patient Bill Day, who’s in his 50s, says now that his asthma is under control, he can swim two miles a day to keep fit and healthy. Yellow and green boxes on social media feeds mean that your friends have been sucked into the world of Wordle, the increasingly popular free online word game. Guessing a new five-letter word every day sounds simple, but Catherine Loveday, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Westminster, explains just how much work the brain does to help solve the puzzle. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath and Samara Linton (Picture: A young jogger using an asthma inhaler on the beach. Photo credit: Westend61/Getty Images.)

Tabitha Mwangi, programme manager at Cambridge Africa at Cambridge University, joins Claudia to discuss the latest on the rapid spread of Omicron across Europe and the factors behind the waves of Covid-19 infections in Kenya. In light of the controversy surrounding Novak Djokovic’s participation in the Australian Open Tennis tournament, Dr Maggie Wearmouth explains the rare instances where people can be medically exempt from having a Covid vaccination. Also, what do the lung scans of Covid-19 patients tell us about how the virus gets around the body, and should we be washing our mouths as well as our hands? Dr Graham Lloyd-Jones, a radiologist from the UK, shares his theory. A new South African study shows how women living with HIV are able to keep healthy – but as they get older, they often develop high blood pressure and diabetes. Tabitha says that there are “missed opportunities” when they come into contact with health services where their weight and overall health could be monitored and advice shared. And Claudia finds out how we can make buildings better for people who process their experiences of the world differently. We hear from Jill Corbyn and architect Jean Hewitt. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath (Picture: A crowd of people wearing face masks to stop the spread of Covid-19 walk in Preciados Street, Madrid, on 28 December 2021. Photo credit: Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket/Getty Images.)

As millions of us have had to stay away from our workplaces during the pandemic, Claudia Hammond explores the psychology of working from home versus the office. Some people have loved not having to commute and quietly beavering away at home, but others have missed the buzz of the office, found balancing family and work at home very difficult with lack of space or limited internet access. So in the future when Covid is less of a worry what does the evidence tell us about where it’s best to work? Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Father working from home with his son sitting next to him. Photo credit: Marko Geber/Getty Images.)

In the past philosophers and scientists have argued about the nature of animal minds: Darwin thought they differed from us only by degree but Descartes believed they were merely machines made of flesh. Anthro-zoologist from the University of Sussex Dr Karen Hiestand wants to find out if our pets really care about us so she filmed owners pretending to be hurt to monitor the reactions of their dogs and cats. Mental health campaigner Marion Janner says her life was saved numerous times by her support dog Buddy. We hear about the central role animals play in Marion’s life and how she coped when Buddy died last year. On a walk in the park, we hear how a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy called Polly helped her owner Sam to come to terms with the death of her previous dog Margo. And Diane James from the Blue Cross for Pets charity explains how they offer telephone and online support to anyone who’s experienced pet loss. Cats have had a bit of an image problem but Karen Hiestand says their apparent aloofness and accusations of laziness arise because we forget that they are solitary creatures, descended from wildcats. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath (Picture: A young girl enjoying the company of a cat at home. Photo credit: d3sign/Getty Images.)

New research on the Omicron variant unpicked by James Gallagher, BBC health and science correspondent. Plus many people listen to music for hours every day, and often near bedtime in the hope of a good night’s sleep. But if you can’t get the tune out of your head could this be counter-productive? In new research, neuropsychologist Michael Scullin of Baylor University has looked at the rarely studied effect of these so called earworms. And could fish oils one day be used to treat some forms of severe depression? Claudia hears from Alessandra Borsini of King’s College London who has been examining the impact of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in the lab and has followed up with a promising trial on severely depressed patients. Plus James Gallagher explains that despite there being no evidence 5G mobile networks are harmful many types of necklaces and accessories claiming to "protect" people from 5G have hit the market. Now the Dutch authority for nuclear safety and radiation protection warns that with long term use such anti-5G products themselves could be harmful due to radioactive concerns. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Omicron variant (B.1.1.529): Immunofluorescence staining of uninfected and infected Vero E6 cells. Photo credit: Microbiology HKU/BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.)

Omicron update from James Gallagher, the BBC Health and Science Correspondent. And as New Zealand announce plans to ban cigarette sales to the next generation born after 2008, Claudia reviews the psychological evidence for such a policy working with Professor Robert West. And with wild birds migrating many countries are seeing an increase in Bird Flu. Dr Richard Webby, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds, explains the risk to human health is low but the implications are high. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: A doctor with a blood sample of Covid-19 Omicron variant. Photo credit: Yalcinsonat1/Gerry Images.)

News update on the new Omicron variant now in many countries across the world. Plus Hannah Fisher reports on the science of smell and conditions other than Covid where it can be lost. Holly Bradshaw, Olympic pole-vaulter turned psychology researcher discusses the post-Olympic blues with Karen Howells, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology. And could Viagra be a candidate drug for Alzheimer's disease? This week’s guest is Mathew Fox, Professor of Global Epidemiology from Boston University. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: 3D illustration of coronavirus. Credit: Maksim Tkachenko/Getty Images.)

Omicron Covid variant – what do we know? Claudia examines key questions about the new variant with Professor of Molecular Virology, Jonathan Ball. Plus growing evidence that pollution has a negative effect on our mental health. And a new way of testing for TB in children. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Image: Microscopic view of influenza virus cells. Photo credit: Panorama Images/Getty Images.)

James Gallagher, BBC health and science correspondent, examines Covid case rates across Europe. A report on a new study documenting the incidence of Typhoid in three capital cities - Blantyre, Malawi and Kathmandu, Nepal, for the first time - plus updated estimates in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Claudia discusses the role of antibiotic resistance and gets an update on a new vaccine for the disease. Remembering Professor Sir Michael Rutter, ‘the father of child psychiatry’ who died recently. And can house work help your memory? Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: A crowded street in Brussels, Belgium in November 2021. Photo credit: Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency/Getty images.)

New research on how some people had a level of Covid immunity before the pandemic started. Blood samples showed hospital staff being monitored in the first wave already had protective ‘killer’ T-cells probably from exposure to other viruses related to the one that has swept the globe. The difference between antibodies to an infection and antibodies caused by a vaccine. And the extraordinary story of a woman who rid her body of HIV. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Microbiologist studying coronavirus. Photo credit: Janiecbros/Getty Images)

New antiviral pills to treat Covid are coming thick and fast. Pfizer have just announced their new antiviral Paxlovid in the same week UK’s MHRA was the first country in the world to approve Molnupiravir – Merck’s pill launched last month. So how do the two antivirals compare? And a report from the longest operating milk bank in North America. Since 1974, the Mothers’ Milk Bank in San Jose, California has been collecting breast milk to help nurture vulnerable babies (especially premature ones) at a critical time in their lives. Today it supplies about 500 gallons of breast milk a month reaching over 80% of California’s newborn intensive care units (or NICU’s) and serves eleven hospitals in other U.S. states, as far afield as New York. Who donates all this milk and how is the milk treated to ensure it’s safe and nourishing for babies? Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: A hand holding pills. Photo credit: Thana Prasongsin/Getty Images.)

An International team of scientists has launched a global hunt for rare people who may be genetically resistant to SARS CoV-2 infection. Individuals who’ve been exposed to the virus living in families where everyone else in the household got infected, who repeatedly tested negative and didn’t mount an immune response. Claudia Hammond speaks to immunologist Evangelos Andreakos, part of the team at the Biomedical Research Foundation in Athens about this fascinating quest. And Claudia hears from Norway about more reassuring research into Covid vaccination in pregnancy. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: A woman walking on the streets of Manhattan, New York City. Photo credit: Lechatnoir/Getty Images.)

New evidence from Sweden and France on the benefits of mixing and matching doses of different types of Covid vaccine. The impact misinformation around treating Covid with Ivermectin is having on the Neglected Tropical diseases where the drug is known to work. And are oat and soy milks as nutritious as cow’s milk? Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: A healthcare worker holds vials of the Covaxin and Covisheld vaccines in Allika Village, India. Photo credit: Pallava Bagla/Corbis/ Getty Images.)

New Covid vaccine from Valneva produces stronger immune response when compared to AstraZeneca, the French company reports, with no severe cases of Covid-19 seen in either group. And new positive research on lateral flow tests. Plus guest Graham Easton discusses the urgent need for teaching climate and environmental health in medical schools. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Coronavirus vaccine vials on a laboratory shelf. Photo credit: Joao Paulo Burini/Getty Images.)

Henrietta Lacks died in 1951 from a virulent cervical cancer. A sample of those cancer cells was taken at the time, and the way they behave has changed medical science forever, contributing to everything from the polio vaccine to drugs for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. As the WHO give a posthumous award, Claudia discusses how the Henrietta Lacks legacy raises issues of global health equity. Plus with a Malaria Vaccine given a historic green light by the WHO to protect children in Africa, what are the distribution difficulties in countries which carry the greatest burden of disease? And what’s behind the low rate of Covid-19 vaccinations in Taiwan? We hear from one resident about why she’s chosen to have a home-grown Medigen vaccine which hasn’t yet completed all its clinical trials – and another who wants to wait for an alternative. Scientists say that trials about to start in Paraguay should show whether it stimulates enough immunity to protect people in the way the AstraZeneca vaccine does. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Henrietta Lacks, after whom HeLa cells are named, standing outside her home in Baltimore, USA. Photo credit: Getty Images.)

Trials stopped early of a new Covid antiviral pill, Molnupiravir, as it may cut numbers of people in hospital by about a half. Claudia Hammond discusses the ethical questions of who should be given it. Plus Unicef report on findings about childhood mental health before and during the pandemic. And a new exhibition on the researchers and trial participants outwitting cancer. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Photo: An experimental Covid-19 treatment pill called Molnupiravir. Photo credit: Merck/Reuters)

Many people have struggled with their mental health during the pandemic, but still don’t always feel free to discuss it, especially at work. Stigma remains a problem and discussing your difficulties at all is off-limits. For many years in England a campaign called Time To Change tried to change attitudes and the evidence from that and other initiatives was used to launch campaigns in India, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda in 2019. Sue Baker, Mind’s International Health Advisor, and Rosemary Gathara, Director of Basic Needs, Basic Rights in Kenya discuss the findings of the campaigns with Claudia Hammond. Matt Fox, Professor of Global Epidemiology at Boston University in the US, joins Claudia to talk about the latest global picture of Covid, mask wearing at basketball games in the US and the Kindness Test. And they look at research that suggests too much free time is bad for us. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: A woman sitting in a room. Photo credit: Jasmin Merdan/Getty Images.)

In 2020 Vietnam ran a successful track and trace system, with very few coronavirus infections and for a long time no deaths at all, while other countries had thousands. In 2021 things haven’t gone so well and since July strict stay at home orders have been in place in some cities. Nga Pham, a journalist from BBC World News, and software engineer Kevin Vu talk about what life is like in Hanoi and Ho Chi Min City. Dr Monica Lakhanpaul, Professor of Integrated Community Child Health at University College London, talks to Claudia Hammond about a mystery disease outbreak in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. The symptoms are fever, joint pains, headaches and nausea. People born premature can have an increased risk of developing heart problems later in life. For the first time researchers have shown that breast milk can improve heart performance in premature babies. The new study was done by Afif El-Khuffash who looks after premature babies and is Clinical Professor of Paediatrics at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. And Monica and Claudia discuss the latest research into long Covid in children. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Pam Rutherford (Picture: A resident rides her bicycle near a make-shift barricade in Hanoi during the lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19. Photo credit: Nhac Nguyen/AFP/Getty Images.)

How art and gardening has saved some people’s mental health during the pandemic. Claudia visits the most wonderful allotment to find out how one community in the UK has benefited. Nightmares and how people with psychosis can be plagued and even traumatised by bad dreams, but that there is a way of dealing with them. Plus, can kindness help you live a long life and evidence on whether dogs feel jealous! Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Close up of women planting salad seedlings. Photo credit: Betsie Van der Meer/Getty Images.)

When was the last time you did something really kind for someone or someone else did something really kind for you? Claudia Hammond and guests are looking at the place of kindness in today’s world, asking what it really means, what happens in our brains when we act kindly and whether there can ever be a role for it in the cut-throat worlds of business and politics. She hears what kindness means to people in Kenya, Chile and in the UK. And with many aspects of kindness remaining under-researched, with your help Claudia and Robin Banerjee, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Sussex, are asking you to fill in the gaps by taking part in the Kindness Test. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright

Trials have shown that cocktails of antibodies are effective against Covid, and one called Ronapreve has just been approved for use in the UK, following in the footsteps of Japan and the US. Claudia Hammond talks to Penny Ward, Professor of Pharmaceutical Medicine at Kings College, London, about how these monoclonal antibodies work and where they are best used, given that they are very expensive. The UN Refugee Agency and the International Organisation for Migration have called on governments to ensure that everyone is included in vaccination plans, including refugees and internally displaced people. Samara Linton reports on how undocumented migrants, in South East Asia and in the UK, are getting vaccinated against Covid. The increased heat we are experiencing with climate change is causing deaths in people with underlying health conditions. Professor Kristie Ebi of the University of Washington tells Claudia about what we can do to keep cool, in particular in places without air conditioning. And family doctor Graham Easton comments on these stories and discusses the relationship between Covid and heat. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Deborah Cohen (Picture: Computer illustration of the release of monoclonal antibodies. Credit: Nanoclustering/Science Photo Library/Getty Images.)

The adventurer and ultra-runner Alex Staniforth talks about his survival on Everest following the devastating Nepalese earthquake in 2015. Rachel Manning from Buckingham University considers why we do or don’t intervene in risky situations and in everyday life. And Patrick Tissington from Warwick University draws on the stories behind those awarded the Victoria or George Cross for bravery to suggest some of the best ways to manage our fear in allowing us to be more courageous. The programme is presented by Claudia Hammond and recorded at the Cheltenham Science Festival in June 2021. Image: Rock climber clinging to a cliff Credit: gregepperson/Getty Images Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Adrian Washbourne

Claudia Hammond and her studio guest global health journalist Sarah Boseley discuss the health impact of the fires that are raging in many places including Southern Europe and the US. Lizzie Crouch reports on the longer term physical and mental effects of fires on people who experienced them in Colorado last year. Two reports, from the Netherlands and the US, are published this week that highlight the lack of women in drug trials for heart disease. Heart disease is often thought to be more common in men than women but that isn’t the case and new drugs need to be tested on women as well as on men. As the Olympics comes to an end Claudia talks to Adrian Bauman, Emeritus Professor of Global Health at the University of Sydney, about if there is any legacy for the general public in terms of increased exercise and fitness. He has just published a paper in The Lancet exploring this question – and the answer is a no. And Sarah Boseley and Claudia discuss the case of Marburg Disease in Guinea, the first to be reported in West Africa. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Deborah Cohen (Picture: People run away from a forest fire in the Milas district of Muğla province, Turkey on 3rd August 2021. Photo credit: Ali Balli/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.)

Spatial awareness in sport: USA gymnast Simone Biles won Olympic bronze but withdrew from earlier events due to ‘The twisties’ and resulting mental health issues. Family Doctor Graham Easton looks at the evidence for what causes this condition. Childhood myopia: A new study finds an increase in childhood short-sightedness during the pandemic. Lead author Jason C. S. Yam explains the potential impact of lockdowns on eye health by increasing close work on screens and decreasing outside activity. Cannabis and vomiting: Alison van Diggelen reports on an under recognised condition, Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome [CHS] where users of marijuana get bouts of vomiting, nausea, and severe abdominal pain that can need hospitalisation. It mostly impacts long term users though some younger people who smoke concentrates only a few times a week have had it too. Severe weight loss and the dehydration caused by vomiting can have long term impacts on the heart, liver and kidneys even causing death in extreme cases. Oxygen monitoring: Updated guidance showing that pulse oximeters – a device designed to measure early signs of a dangerous drop in oxygen - works less well in people with darker skin. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Simone Biles of Team United States competes in the Women's Balance Beam Final on day eleven of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre in Tokyo, Japan. Photo credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images.)

New research on Covid vaccination in prisons. Plus can financial incentives like free tuition or free cruises encourage people to get the jab? Samara Linton reports on some surprising examples, while Professor Stephen Higgins reviews the evidence. And does the use of words like "provider" or "customer" subtly change healthcare? Claudia's guest is Matt Fox, Professor of Global Health Epidemiology at Boston University. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Prisoners at the La Modelo Correctional Facility wait to receive a Covid-19 vaccination administered by medical workers in Bogota, Colombia in July 2021. Photo credit: Juancho Torres/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.)

A really intriguing finding on flu vaccines - that they might offer some protection not just against flu, but against the most serious effects of Covid-19 – even though it is of course a completely different virus. Claudia Hammond talks to Dr Devinder Singh who led the research using anonymous medical records from countries including Singapore, Germany, Italy and Israel, which medical researchers can use. Summer viruses And why are some countries in the middle of the summertime, seeing a surge of infections with viruses usually found in winter? In the northern hemisphere there are fears that we’ll see a surge of cases of flu next winter – a twindemic. Why is that? And is this something that will follow the seasons around the world? We hear from Lorna and her daughter Willow on Willow’s persistent cough and from Dr Michelle Jacobs who’s a consultant in paediatric and adult emergency medicine at Watford General Hospital in the UK on concerns of RSV and viral wheeze, and Tracy Hussell, professor in immunology at the University of Manchester on children’s long-term immunity especially for babies who are seeing all these infections for the first time. Downs Syndrome and Covid-19 There’s new research just published in the British Medical Journal looking at how both adults and children with Downs Syndrome have been affected if they contract Covid. Some countries such as India are prioritising vaccination against Covid-19 for adults with Downs Syndrome. University College London’s Professor Monica Lakhanpaul’s work has been instrumental in helping clinics to start vaccinating people in India. And in the UK it’s just been announced that children with Downs Syndrome will be able to get vaccinated, which isn’t the case for all children. Monica explains the relevance of the research and her work in highlighting the issue. Image: Vaccine bottles in a row Credit: Helder Faria/Getty Images Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright

Claudia Hammond presents three stories where people have helped someone who’s going through mental health difficulties. Dale had spent his childhood playing basketball at an elite level, and when his career stalled he became depressed. A chance meeting with Mike, a customer in the mobile phone shop where Dale was working, has turned his life around. Poppy was going through a very tough time when she was 16, but a teacher at her college called Sophie Durant was determined to give her the chance to talk if she wanted to. Poppy is now about to start to study dance at university. Adam’s teenage daughter Megan knew she suffered from food allergies and was always careful with her diet. One evening five years ago, she had a take-away at a friend’s house. They warned the restaurant about her allergies, but she suffered a severe anaphylactic shock and on New Year’s Day she died. Adam has found great support from a group in the UK for men who’ve been bereaved called StrongMen. It’s never easy to know what to say to a friend or relative who has mental health problems without risking making things worse. Clinical psychologist Linda Blair gives tips on how to handle these conversations. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Pam Rutherford (Picture: A couple hiking in the Austrian mountains. Photo credit: Westend61/Getty Images.)

The lambda variant of coronavirus, first seen in Peru and Chile, has now spread to 27 other countries and new research just out suggests it’s better than other variants at escaping the antibodies produced by the CoronaVac vaccine that’s widely used in Latin America. The WHO does only currently classify it as a variant of interest and not a variant of concern. Ricardo Soto Rifo from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Chile, Santiago who conducted this new research explains his findings. A charity in the UK called Ovacome has long run in person support groups for women with ovarian cancer. And now women who live miles apart, but share similar experiences have got to know each other very well, online, during the pandemic. To find out what happens in these meetings, Health Check dropped in, on Zoom, to listen in to Gill, Gillian, Siobhan, Allyson and Jo. Dr Per Block, a research lecturer at the University of Oxford, has been investigating whether moods are contagious and crucially whether we pick on up good moods or bad moods more easily. The results of his study with teenage members of choirs and orchestras who were away on tour together have just been published in the journal Emotion. He tells Claudia what he found. Claudia’s studio guest is family doctor, Ann Robinson, who talks about new research into diet and migraines and whether a David Beckham style plastic boot or a traditional plaster cast is the best treatment for a broken ankle. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright and Paula McGrath (Picture: A woman receives her first dose of the CoronaVac vaccine during a door-to-door vaccination day against Covid-19 on 03 July 2021 in a rural area of the Jerusalén municipality, Cundinamarca Department, Colombia. Credit: Guillermo Legaria/Getty Images.)

New evidence on whether mixing Covid vaccines and spreading doses out gives better results. Plus, has five years of food labels in Chile warning of high fat, sugar or salt made a difference to obesity levels? Jane Chambers reports. And what gives some people a sense of entitlement? Emily Zitek, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Cornell University explains her new research. Claudia's studio guest is James Gallagher, BBC Health and Science Correspondent. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Three vials with different vaccines against Covid-19 by (L-R) Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech. Photo credit: Thomas Kienzle/AFP/ Getty Images.)

As Tanzania joins Covax, Rhoda Odhiambo discusses the challenges ahead and says 'joining' makes it sound simple but the requirements that need to be put in place are far from simple. Also,results from the first national TB prevalence survey in South Africa shows that the disease is found more in men and young people than previously recognised. Claudia talks to professor Martie van der Walt, director of the TB platform of the South African Medical Research Council while Taurai Maduna reports from a TB screening clinic in Diepsloot, Gauteng Province. Plus, professor Catherine Loveday on new research assessing lockdown memories and what they mean. Claudia's studio guest is Matt Fox from Boston University. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Photo: Portrait of a young man wearing a face mask in Nungwi, Tanzania. Credit: Jasmin Merdan/Getty Images)

Good news that a new treatment for Covid could help one in three people in hospital. Results are from the Recovery trial in the UK using an infusion of two antibodies made in the laboratory which bind to the virus and stop it replicating. But it is expensive and those people who haven't made their own antibodies should be given the treatment. And Project S - the unique experiment that vaccinated a whole town in Brazil. Claudia speaks to Dr Ricardo Palacios, clinical studies director at the Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo, leading the research. Plus a ground breaking trial in Yogyakarta city, Indonesia, that has cut cases of Dengue Fever by 77% by infecting mosquitoes with a "miraculous" bacteria. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: A doctor holds a vial of monoclonal antibodies, a new treatment for Covid-19. Photo credit: Cristian Storto Fotografia/Getty Images.)

Aducanumab the controversial new drug for Alzheimer’s disease, just approved by the FDA in the US is the first approved breakthrough in nearly 20 years. But, as Sarah Boseley explains, scientists dispute the drug’s effectiveness. Good news from a study published in Lancet Healthy Longevity looking at protection levels from getting Covid. It studied the risk of COVID reinfection in care home staff and occupants up to 10 months after first being unwell and showed substantial levels of protection is retained. And a new paper on Vitamin D deficiency in Africa – the first large prevalence study in children on the continent. Plus bestselling author and gynaecologist Dr Jen Gunter on her Menopause Manifesto, part two in our mini-series on Health Check. Dr Gunter unpicks the facts and feminism of how society’s focus on what happens to women’s bodies has shaped and hindered treatment for the menopause. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright Image: Abstract medical icon of head showing Alzheimer's memory loss due to dementia and brain disease Credit: wildpixel/Getty Images

Could over the counter Steroids be driving the Black Fungus epidemic in India? Claudia talks to Dr Awadhesh Singh from the GD Hospital and Diabetes Institute in Kolkata who explains the link between Steroid use and the shocking surge in cases of this deadly disease. Guest Matt Fox from Boston University discusses mass Covid testing in Vietnam and a trial of mask wearing in Bangladesh, plus the renaming of Covid variants using the Greek alphabet. And bestselling author Dr Jen Gunter on her new book The Menopause Manifesto – own your health with facts and feminism! Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: A doctor inspects a patient for mucormycosis inside a dedicated ward at MMG hospital in Ghaziabad, India. Photo credit: Sakib Ali/Hindustan Times/Getty Images.)

The kind boss who transformed their employee's mental health – Natalie and Gillian share their amazing story with Claudia Hammond. And new research finds kindness really is contagious - Alison van Diggelen hears from scientists in California that kindness really does spread. Plus guest professor Monica Lakhanpaul discusses vaccine effectiveness against the variant first identified in India and addresses ethical questions of vaccinating children. Plus new science on how mammals breathing through their bottoms could be a future solution to oxygenating human blood without risking the lung damage caused by ventilators. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Photo: A boy protects his younger brother from the rain with an umbrella. Credit: Estersinhache fotografía/Getty Images)

New evidence for when to have your second Covid vaccine dose; Plus the long awaited results of a 20 year trial into Ovarian Cancer screening and whether picking the disease up early with a simple blood test helps to save lives. And Misophonia – the curious condition where sounds of other people eating can cause anger and panic. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Vials of vaccine for Covid-19 to be administered by injection. Photo credit: A. Martin UW Photography/Getty Images.)

New research from The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal shows current body mass index [BMI] guidance is outdated and dangerous for people from different ethnic groups. The study’s principal investigator, Dr Rishi Caleyachetty unpicks the global implications of his findings. Maria Rebollo Polo – WHO lead for Neglected Tropical Diseases in Africa – explains the important task of mapping NTDs like Trachoma. Plus Khadidiatou Cisse reports from Benin on Trachoma – one of the oldest known infections and a leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide. And, have our memories really got worse during the pandemic? Professor Catherine Loveday of Westminster University discusses her new research on our memories during lockdown. Guest: Dr Ann Robinson Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Female doctor weighing senior patient at medical clinic. Photo credit: Jose Luis Pelaez/Getty Images.)

As Tanzania announces new Covid prevention measures after the new president instigates a change in response to the pandemic, correspondent Rhoda Odhiambo discusses the implications for the country. And celebrating the Windrush generation in theatre - nurses who came to the UK from the Caribbean to work in the NHS share their memories in a new play. Plus Claudia talks to Mohsen Rajabi about his new research surveying Mental Health in Iran - both parents and children - after 16 months of school closures and hears from 18 year old Parnia Abharian about her first hand experience. And the science of a baby's first poo! Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: People come to wash their hands with chlorinated water in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in March 2020. Photo credit: Ericky Boniphace/AFP/Getty Images.)

As India surpasses 200,000 Covid deaths Claudia asks why the surge has been so steep and hears the latest from health reporter Anoo Bhuyan in Delhi. And there's good news of a new Malaria Vaccine showing 75% efficacy. Studio guest Tabitha Mwangi discusses this important breakthrough in the context of a new study from the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal with the first clinical evidence of drug-resistant malaria mutations gaining foothold in Africa. Plus Caroline Williams on her new book MOVE! which unpicks the science of how movement opens up a hotline to our minds changing the way we think and feel. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Photo: People wait to refill empty oxygen cylinders on 27 April 2021 in New Delhi, India. Credit: Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times/Getty Images)

Claudia Hammond hears stories of medical mysteries from author of Sleeping Beauties and consultant neurologist Suanne O’Sullivan. From the refugee children in Sweden who slept for months to the US Embassy staff in Cuba who fell ill with dizziness, what can cases like these and others from around the world reveal about the mind and body. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Deborah Cohen

Claudia and guest Professor Matthew Fox from Boston University discuss the latest Covid-19 research this week – and there’s plenty of it! There’s new data on the variant first found in the UK, plus efficacy data just out comparing the immune responses to the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines. And news from India of a so called ‘double mutant’ where two variants come together. Meanwhile the big vaccine news in the US is that they have temporarily suspended the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, so much to discuss! Plus, despite an acclaimed vaccine roll out Chile is experiencing a second wave of Covid infections. This has led some to claim that vaccine roll outs aren’t making the difference we all hoped or that it’s the type of vaccine being used. Jane Chambers reports and finds that it’s more complicated – as ever! And David and Barbara got in touch with the BBC about a treatable condition that can be easily confused with dementia - Normal pressure Hydrocephalus. Finally, a study from Japan on the risk of dementia and – surprisingly - whether it has anything to do with whether there are pavements nearby. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: Health workers give the Sinovac vaccine against Covid-19 at a vaccination centre in Santiago, Chile. Photo credit: Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images.)

Mental Health and Covid; Claudia examines 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 unseen threat of exposure to radiation can teach us anything about dealing with the hidden threat of the current Covid-19 virus. A report from Nigeria on how some people with fractures may turn to the traditional bonesetter to get their bones mended. Charles Mgbolu reports from Lagos. And diagnosing concussion: how a team at the University of Birmingham in the UK has developed a saliva test which can detect whether someone with a bang on the head during sport can safely return to the game. Professor Tony Belli explains the science behind the test. Plus Claudia’s studio guest is Graham Easton, Professor of Clinical Communication Skills at Barts and the London Medical School. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright (Picture: A traditional Japanese kite, bearing messages of hope by children living in Fukushima prefecture, is flown over the Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum in Futaba town on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the disaster. Photo credit: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images.)

Despite the myths and fear which surround leprosy it can be treated and prevented with a short course of antibiotics. The disease is spread by a bacteria which is easily killed with these drugs. Although this stops the virus spreading it doesn’t help those who have been disfigured by the parasite, they are still viewed negatively even though they are no longer infectious. As Seydina Alioune Djigo reports, Senegal has embarked on a campaign to both treat Leprosy with drugs and educate more widely on the condition. They have also removed restrictions on those banished to former leper colonies. Also if you died would you donate your eyes to help some else see? Oyeyemi Gbenga-Mustapha reports from Nigeria on an eye banking project there, which uses donated eyes to restore the sight of people affected by corneal blindness. However as with many forms of organ donation the practice is not widely accepted yet. Presented by Priscilla Ngethe.

Vaccine hesitancy and Covid vaccines for Children. Claudia talks to paediatrician Dr Robert Jacobson of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA about issues of Covid vaccine hesitancy and why this issue may grow as Covid vaccines become available for children. As trials on children as young as 6 months get underway, and vaccination for children likely to be available, in some countries, from the summer/early autumn, why is vaccinating children against Covid important and what can be done to help parents overcome any hesitancy they might have? New Test to predict pre-term labour. Every year, around 15 million babies in the world are born too early. In countries such as Malawi, Pakistan and Indonesia, more than 15% of babies are premature. Not all survive and some of those that do have disabilities, which might have been preventable with simple care. The question is how to predict which pregnant women might go into labour too early. Reporter Madeleine Finlay investigates a new test using the vaginal microbiome to predict which mums might be most at risk. The first 1000 days. Claudia talks to Professor Monica Lakhanpaul about the critical first 1000 days of a baby's life and a new exhibition that hopes to highlight this key period in a child’s development. Claudia also talks to her about the idea of Reverse Innovation: lessons that richer countries can learn from poorer countries when it comes to health. We’re much more used to it being the other way round, but there are now many projects that are using techniques and ideas learnt from middle and lower income countries in providing health support to communities in the UK and other higher income countries. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Alexandra Feachem (Picture: A young boy who has just been vaccinated. Photo credit: D.Jiang/Getty Images.)

In Senegal there are a range of measures to help people living with disabilities enter the workforce, however overcoming attitudes is still a major issue. And we look at the impact of shoes on our physical health, it’s not just feet but bones and joints in the legs and spine that can be affected by our footwear. With Khadidiatou Cisse, Saida Swaleh and Priscilla Ngethe.

Claudia talks to her guest Dr Ann Robinson about a new study from the University of Glasgow in the UK that suggests the virus that causes the common cold can effectively boot the Covid virus out of the body's cells. Some viruses are known to compete in order to be the one that causes an infection and researchers have discovered that it appears cold-causing rhinovirus trumps coronavirus. The benefits might be short-lived but rhinovirus is so widespread it could still help to suppress Covid. Mental Health in Covid frontline health and social care workers. Claudia hears from Dr Talya Greene about a new study showing that nearly 60% of health and social care workers working in the UK during the first wave of Covid have suffered from either anxiety, depression or post traumatic stress disorder. What can we learn from the impact of Covid on the mental health of hospital and social care staff in order to help build resilience for future traumas. Azeezat Olaoluwa reports from Nigeria looking at something that affects many women in Africa: uterine fibroids. These are non cancerous growths that develop in or around the womb. It’s a medical condition that affects black women more than any other race, making it an unavoidable health condition for a large percentage of black women. Heart Surgeon Dr Reinhard Freidl talks to Claudia about his new book “The Beat of Life” about why, to him, the heart is so much more than just a pump, and why being broken hearted is a recognised medical condition. Image: Woman blowing her nose Credit: LaylaBird/Getty Images Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Alexandra Feachem

In Nigeria we meet someone who finds that swimming can help alleviate her depression and we discuss how self-esteem as well as diet can impact a new mothers’ ability to breastfeed. With Pricilla Ngethe, Milly Akeyo and Charles Mgbolu.

As further European countries announce precautionary suspension of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine over fears it may have caused blood clots in a very small number of people, Claudia talks to BBC Health Editor James Gallagher about what the data really tells us about the safety of this vaccine. Tanzania and Covid. Claudia talks to BBC Africa Correspondent Leila Nathoo about Covid in Tanzania. President Magufuli was one of Africa’s most prominent Covid-19 sceptics, and is now rumoured to have died of the disease himself. Last year he said the disease had been eradicated from Tanzania by three days of national prayer but does Tanzania have a hidden epidemic? Vaccine Side Effects. Claudia discovers why there seems to be such a difference in how people have reacted to the vaccine, from no side effects at all, to mild flu like symptoms. She looks at how the vaccine triggers an immune response, and why it can’t give you Covid. Haitians in Chile. Chile has long been a destination for immigrants from other countries in the region because there are more work opportunities. People from places like Venezuela, Bolivia and Peru make up around 8 percent of the 19 million population and the number is growing every year. What’s surprising is that the third biggest group of immigrants in Chile come from the Caribbean country Haiti. Health services are quickly having to learn ways to integrate their new patients who have different approaches to healthcare as Jane Chambers reports. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Alexandra Feachem (Picture: A vial of AstraZeneca vaccine at Krakow University Hospital, Poland in February 2021. Photo credit: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Getty Images.)

As the roll out of vaccines across Africa gathers pace we look to the future, how vaccination may help ease travel restrictions and ways to convince those still reluctant to get vaccinated. We also look at diabetes, the disease is more common than we might think affecting a wide range of people. With Rhoda Odhiambo, Anne Mawathe and Priscilla Ngethe.

A significant proportion of sufferers of Long Covid are reporting that their symptoms lessen or disappear completely after receiving a coronavirus vaccination. At the moment, the evidence is just anecdotal but doctors and researchers are intrigued. Claudia talks to New York infectious disease doctor Daniel Griffin who estimates that more than a third of his patients are getting some relief following vaccination and Prof Janet Lord, professor of immunology at Birmingham University, runs through the possible explanations. Dangerous myths about blood transfusions. Dayo Yusuf reports from eastern Kenya on the myths about them in some pastoralist communities and meets the parents who rejected the option of a life-saving blood transfusion for their son who has chronic anaemia. They feared bad character traits of the donor would be passed onto him. Monica Lakhanpaul, professor of paediatrics, discusses other damaging health myths that she has studied in South Asia and how these false beliefs about the body and modern medical interventions can be most effectively tackled. Claudia talks to neurologist Prof Peter Goadsby, one of the winners of this year’s Brain Prize – the Nobel equivalent for neuroscience. Four neurologists have won for their research on migraine – basic medical research that has culminated in a new generation of highly effective medications in the last couple of years. As Claudia’s studio guest, Monica Lakhanpaul also offers thoughts about migraine as someone who suffers from them herself and who treats young people for migraine. She also talks about research she’s been doing in Rajasthan about the causes of stunted growth in young children – she’s discovered that the causes are much more complicated than inadequate nutrition. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Alexandra Feachem (Picture: A woman receiving a vaccination at home. Photo credit: FG Trade/Getty Images.)

When it comes to mending broken bones or rectifying the eye problems caused by the disease Trachoma, what place does traditional medicine have? Many people would choose traditional medicine practitioners over conventional doctors and hospitals. However herbalism and spiritual belief are poor substitutes when surgery is needed. Can these two very different approaches be reconciled for the benefit of patients? Priscila Ngethe, Khadidiatou Cisse, and Charles Mgbolu discuss the conflict and potential for collaboration between the opposing forces of traditional and orthodox medicine.

Health Check looks into issues around Covid-19 vaccination and pregnant women. Harvard researcher Julia Wu has just done a global survey of attitudes of pregnant women about being vaccinated against Covid-19. Acceptance is highest in low and middle income countries such as India and Latin America. The greatest levels of reluctance were in the US and Russia. Pfizer has started the first trial of a Covid-19 vaccine in pregnant women, which will ultimately involve 4000 women in ten countries in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Should we have waited this long for the first trial in this group of people, seeing that pregnant women are at greater risk of hospitalisation, death and premature birth if they become infected? Claudia discusses the unknowns and risk/benefit considerations around vaccinating pregnant women against the virus, with Johns Hopkins medical ethicist Ruth Faden and maternal immunisation researcher Acuzena Bardiji of the Institute for Global Health in Barcelona. Matt Fox in Boston is our guest of the week, talking about the latest evidence for Covid vaccines being transmission blockers and whether vaccine hesitant people should be paid to be immunised. From a freezing Canadian river bank, Sian Griffiths reports on the health pros and cons of surfing three metre high waves on the ice filled Ottawa River. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker Image: Pregnant woman receiving a coronavirus vaccine in Tel Aviv, Israel Credit: Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images

We’re looking at why levels of blood donation in Africa are so low compared with other parts of the world. From Nigeria we hear about hospitals having to ask patients and family members to give blood to ensure there is enough for their relatives if they require treatment. From Somalia we look at how the continuing violence and unrest has brought into sharp focus the need for an organised system of blood donation – currently there is only one donor centre – for the whole country, run by volunteers. And in Kenya we meet people who refuse blood transfusions, believing they might take on the characteristics of the person donating the blood. Health workers and religious leaders are coming together to try to change these beliefs. Presented by Priscilla Ngethe with contributions from Bella Sheegow, Charles Mgbolu and Dayo Yusuf. (Picture: People donating blood in Kenya. Credit: Getty Images)

Health Check discusses Long Covid with Nishi Chaturvedi, professor clinical epidemiology at University College London, and Dr Shamil Haroon, family doctor and public health researcher at the University of Birmingham. They’ve both begun big research projects on what Long Covid is, what causes it and how best to treat patients. We also hear from two people whose lives have transformed for the worse by the syndrome. Claudia talks to Professor Gagandeep Kang who has delivered a keynote talk at this week’s Commonwealth Science Conference. Her theme was how the world’s scientists were able to develop multiple coronavirus vaccines so quickly. She says the global health community were determined to learn the lessons from the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014 to 2016. Professor Kang is one of India’s leading vaccinologists, based at the Wellcome Trust Research Laboratory at the Christian Medical College in Vellore. Claudia also asks her about the latest coronavirus infection rate in India and why the mortality rate has been much lower there than in many other countries. Dr Ann Robinson is Claudia’s guest of the week, talking about the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, how research on Long Covid may benefit many more than those who have it, and a ketamine nasal spray for the treatment of severe depression. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: Ill woman with purple face mask coughing, lying down and resting. Photo credit: Ruslan Dashinsky/Getty Images.)

We’re looking at a health issue that disproportionately affects black women - Uterine fibroids. These are non-cancerous growths that develop in or around the womb. There is little research on what causes fibroids or how to prevent them. Azeezat Olaoluwa, BBC News Women’s Affairs journalist based in Lagos, has been investigating. And the findings from a small study in South Africa on a leading Covid-19 vaccine have led to questions over its effectiveness. This one offers the most promise for Africa as it doesn’t need to be kept at super low temperatures. There are still plans to roll out this vaccine across Africa, though South Africa is now looking for alternatives. Rhoda Odhiambo has been looking into what it all means. Presented by Priscilla Ngethe.

Claudia talks to Dr Lucia Chambal at the Central Hospital of Maputo in Mozambique. She is helping to coordinate the response of the country’s largest hospital to an ongoing surge in new Covid patients. In the last three weeks, they’ve had to create more than new 150 beds to accommodate these patients, including erecting large tents to act as Covid wards in the hospital grounds. Dr Chambal talks about the pressures, saying they’ve admitted many more patients since January than during the entire period between last March and December. A study at New York hospital has revealed the substantial benefits of giving mobilising physiotherapy to hospitalised Covid-19 patients. In the first months of the pandemic at the Montefiore Medical Center when patient numbers dramatically increased, some patients received physiotherapy while others didn’t because of a lack of PPE for therapists. Looking back at the fate of both groups of patients, the hospital has now found that the survival rate of those getting the therapy was twice that of those who didn’t. What makes that result particularly interesting is the people who were given physical therapy were on average older and more likely to have risky health conditions. Yet their chances of survival were higher because of the therapy. Is coconut oil an amazing superfood or an overhyped food fad? Africa Life Clinic’s Dayo Yusif reports from coconut heaven on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast. BBC Health and Science correspondent James Gallagher is Claudia’s studio guest, talking about evidence from Israel that the vaccination programme there is reducing the spread of the coronavirus in the population: whether the drug Budesonide in asthma inhalers prevents Covid illness development: and whether there is such a thing as a superfood. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: A woman walks with her daughter in Maputo, Mozambique in February 2021. Photo credit: Alfredo Zuniga/AFP/Getty Images.)

Infections caused by germs which have become resistant to the medicines used to treat them pose a great threat to people’s health, as curable diseases become untreatable. Unregulated medicine dispensation and improper cleaning and sanitation at hospitals can all contribute to the spread of resistant germs. Overuse of antibiotics in animal rearing can also contribute, although this is less prevalent in Africa. Professor Joachim Osur and Dr John Kiiru explain. Many claims have been made about the potential health benefits of coconut oil. The oil is used widely in cooking and for hair, skin and healthcare. Dayo Yusuf travelled to Mombasa, Kenya, to investigate how coconut oil is produced and explore the nutritional facts and fiction. Priscilla Ngethe discusses these issues with BBC Africa Health Editor Anne Mawathe and reporter Dayo Yusuf.

The South African government has decided to pause its roll-out of the Astrazeneca-Oxford vaccine because of disappointing results of the vaccine’s effectiveness against the most common variant in the country in a trial of young people. And is there any good evidence from trials elsewhere that this vaccine reduces the chances of people spreading the coronavirus to others, as well as preventing severe illness and death? How do you test whether a vaccine prevents or reduces transmission of the coronavirus? Claudia’s regular guest epidemiologist Professor Matt Fox of Boston University discusses the issues. Claudia talks to two ovarian cancer specialists, Dorothy Lombe in Zambia and Georgia Funtes Cintra in Brazil about the challenges and success stories in providing treatment and care for women with this kind of cancer. The Global Cancer Coalition Network has released a report documenting the worsening situation in cancer care in 104 countries because of the coronavirus pandemic. Dorothy and Georgia tell us how the disruption has affected their patients. As Donald Trump’s impeachment trial gets underway, reporter Alison van Diggelen looks at social science research on political polarisation in US society, and an experiment run by Stanford University to heal divisions. Does a frequent intake of spicy food influence a person’s risk of developing cancers of the gut? Studies to date have been inconclusive but now a massive study following 500,000 people comes out of China, finding that spicy food is protective. Spicy food appears to lower the risk of getting cancer of the oesophagus and, to a lesser extent, the stomach as well. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: A doctor walks in the Respiratory & Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, South Africa in July 2020. Photo credit: Luca Sola/AFP/Getty Images.)

So far five African counties have begun vaccination campaigns, with vaccines gifted to them by wealthier countries. For many of the continent’s 1.2 billion people Covid -19 vaccinations will come through the COVAX initiative, which is a programme designed to reach many of the poor and vulnerable across the world. Whilst this is a huge task, Africa does have the advantage of having developed effective methods of delivering vaccinations with campaigns to fight Polio and Ebola. Along with the global pandemic, life threatening diseases such as cholera still thrive in inadequate sanitary conditions which is the situation for many people worldwide. However, there are some relatively simple and cheap solutions available, such as a scheme to build waterless latrines in Nigeria. Reporters Rhoda Odhiambo and Charles Mgbolu join presenter Priscilla Ngethe to discuss these health issues.

Claudia Hammond discusses the latest influx of excellent Covid-19 vaccine results with Sarah Boseley, health editor of The Guardian. Dr Samara Linton reports on efforts by black doctors in the UK to overcome vaccine hesitancy in their communities. The Biden administration is to rescind the USA’s Mexico City Policy which denies federal aid funding to organisations overseas that provide abortion counselling or services. The policy, also known as the Global Gag, prevented other family planning and HIV prevention services from receiving essential funding. Joy Phumaphi, former Botswanan health minister and now with the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health talks to Claudia about the impact of the policy on the health and wellbeing on women and children in sub-Saharan Africa, and about the prospects for these services after the Mexico City Policy’s imminent demise. A team of eye specialists at University College London has found that levels of air pollution typical of big cities around the world increase the risk of one of the commonest causes of age-related sight loss – macular degeneration, a progressive deterioration of the retina. Professor Paul Foster tells Claudia how airborne pollutants from traffic and industry can damage the eye. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: Dr. Nita Patel, Director of Antibody discovery and Vaccine development, lifts a vial with a potential coronavirus, COVID-19, vaccine at Novavax labs in Gaithersburg, Maryland in March 2020. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP.)

The Brazilian city of Manaus remains in a state of crisis as its second surge of Covid-19 cases continues to overwhelm its hospitals and kill hundreds of people every day. Dr Marcus Lacerda, a clinical researcher at the FioCruz Institute talks to Claudia about the city’s medical oxygen supply shortage and why the coronavirus has caused even more suffering during this second surge of cases. One of the commonest symptoms of Covid-19 illness is the loss of the sense of smell. It returns after a few weeks in most people but a significant minority still can’t smell anything many months later. We talk to Professor Carl Philpott of Norwich Medical School who’s led an international panel of nose doctors, assessing the evidence for the best therapies to restore the olfactory sense to people who’ve lost it following respiratory infections. So-called smell training comes out top as the most evidence-based approach. Carl explains how it works and we hear from two people who are trying to regain their sense of smell. Can some people suffer from the side effects of some drugs because they are expecting to experience them, and not because the drugs are actually causing them? That does seem to the case with statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs prescribed to many millions of people around the world. Many people stop taking them because of side effects such as joint pain and muscle aches. But a fascinating study suggests that in many patients, it’s not the drugs that are the problem but something known as the nocebo effect - the evil twin of the placebo effect. We hear from Imperial College London cardiologist James Howard and one of the study’s participants. Doctor Graham Easton is Claudia’s guest of the week, talking about whether Covid vaccines will be effective against the new, more infectious variants of the coronavirus; a link between afternoon naps and sharper mental agility; and he comments on the nocebo effect in medicine. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: A man holds an oxygen tank in Manaus, Amazonas State, Brazil in January 2021 amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo credit: Michael Dantas/AFP/Getty Images.)

After the first few days of India’s Covid mass vaccination programme rollout, Claudia talks to medical ethicist and health policy expert Anant Bhan about the issues arising from the lack of efficacy data for one of the two vaccines. Will they undermine confidence in this gargantuan public health exercise? Cindy Sui reports from Taiwan about a recent increase in the number of suicides among students there. Claudia talks to Zi-Jun Liu about the obese miniature pigs that he is using to study the dangerous condition of sleep apnoea. Claudia’s guest of the week is Tabitha Mwangi of Cambridge University, with news on making yellow fever vaccines go much further when there’s a serious outbreak, protecting vulnerable children from malaria and how the pandemic is putting commercial sex workers in West Africa at greater risk of HIV infection. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: BMC medical staff congratulate their colleague Sr. staff nurse Charushila More after she administered the first Covid-19 vaccine shot at KEM hospital, on January 16, 2021 in Mumbai, India. Photo credit: Anshuman Poyrekar/Hindustan Times/Getty Images.)

BBC global health correspondent Naomi Grimley joins Claudia Hammond for a round-up of the latest developments in Covid vaccines and their rollouts – including the World Health Organisation’s Director General who has admonished richer countries and pharma companies for undermining the chances of access to vaccines for all countries. Plus a controversial vaccine rollout in India and the Iranian leader wants to ban US and UK vaccines. Claudia’s guest of the week is family doctor Ann Robinson who has perspectives on some of the latest Covid treatment news. Early results suggests a place for two monoclonal antibodies in treating patients who are sick enough to be in intensive care, although the drugs are expensive. And there are some encouraging results from a small trial in Argentina of convalescent plasma therapy in older mildly ill patients. The pandemic has disrupted the training of the next generation of health professionals. From Chile, Jane Chambers reports on how a leading dental college in Santiago is innovating to keep the practical tuition of its students up to standard. Ann Robinson tells Claudia about new research measuring the role of air pollution in miscarriages and stillbirths in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Should only doctors do surgery? Claudia talks to Sierra Leonian surgeon Thomas Ashley and Jenny Lofgren of the Karolinska about training more junior health care workers to perform relatively simple surgical procedures such as hernia repair, in the hope of addressing the enormous unmet need for this operation across sub-Saharan Africa. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Image: Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines pictured in January 2021 in Liege, Belgium. Photo credit: Vincent Kalut/Photonews/Getty Images.)

Claudia Hammond talks to Guardian health editor Sarah Boseley exactly one year after she and Claudia first talked on Health Check about a mysterious respiratory disease that had appeared in Wuhan in China – with 59 cases reported at that point. What have been the highs and lows of the world’s response to the coronavirus so far? Alison van Diggelen reports from the USA on research which has found that on average the mental wellbeing of older people has held up better during the pandemic than that of younger generations, despite the mortality risk being much higher for the elderly. Researchers in California and Georgia have also looked at why. For listeners living under strict lockdowns, psychologist Virginia Frum recommends awe walks. Walks during which you deliberately look out for things to be amazed by can boost your emotional wellbeing. You don’t have to travel to spectacular scenery: awe walks can work just as well in a city as out in nature. Boston University’s global health epidemiologist Matthew Fox is Claudia’s guest of the week. They discuss the United States’ troubled Covid vaccine rollout, the long term health problems of conflict refugees, and how smartphones can improve a low-tech method of cervical cancer screening. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: Medical staff members wearing protective clothing accompanying a patient in Wuhan, China in January 2020. Photo credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images.)

Claudia Hammond explores how children think with two psychologists; Dr Victoria Simms from Ulster University who researches how children’s understanding of maths develops and Professor Teresa McCormack from Queens University Belfast who researches how children understand time. The discussion was recorded in front of an audience at the Northern Ireland Science Festival in February 2020. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Caroline Steel (Picture: A group of preschool students sitting on the floor with their legs crossed and their arms raised in the air. Photo credit: FatCamera/Getty Images.)

Have you lost a loved one who is still a part of your life in some way? Did it leave you feeling confused or frozen about how to continue with life? Claudia Hammond examines the distressing phenomenon known as ambiguous loss – the enormous challenge of dealing with a loss when you aren’t sure what has happened, leaving you searching for answers, unable to move on. What has the pandemic done to our memories? Anecdotally many people report that they keep forgetting things which they are sure they would have remembered before. Psychologist Catherine Loveday of the University of Westminster examines the new emerging evidence. Our brain is formed of two hemispheres and in most of us, the two halves are interconnected by millions of nerve fibres that form a large bridging structure called the corpus callosum. But some babies are born without a corpus callosum, linking the two sides. A quarter of these babies grow up with serious developmental difficulties and half have mild to moderate cognitive problems. But a quarter have no problems at all suggesting that somehow the brain is compensating for the low level of connectivity between the two hemispheres. New brain scanning research at the University of Geneva by Dr Vanessa Sifreddi has revealed how the brain does this. Are you more open, less conscientious or more neurotic than you used to be? It used to be thought that personality was fixed in adulthood but it can and does change. Psychologist Eileen Graham has studied data from thousands of people and explains how and which traits are likely to increase or decrease. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: Vintage orange velvet armchair in a stylish, minimal domestic room. Photo credit: Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images.)

Iran 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 the country. But the rate varies enormously from city to city. In the city of Rasht, they estimate more than 70% of the population caught the virus. Claudia Hammond talks to Iranian infectious disease researcher Maryam Darvishian about the findings and what they mean for Iran’s attempts to control the virus today. We look at the sleep hygiene plight of international students whose study and sleep cycles have been thrown into chaos because of Covid travel restrictions. We hear the experiences of a student in Singapore studying remotely at Columbia University in New York. Her classes are usually in the dead of night Singapore time. Harvard sleep researcher Jeanne Duffy advises on the best ways for students to plan their work/sleep patterns. When surgical patients are under general anaesthetic, playing them soothing music and comforting messages may reduce the pain that they experience and the need for opioid pain relief in the 24 hours after their operations. This is the conclusion of a randomised study of about 400 patients undergoing surgery in five German hospitals. Claudia talks to anaesthesiologist Ernil Hansen of Regensberg University who explains how this might be working to make post-operative recovery more comfortable and less reliant on strong analgesic drugs. Claudia’s studio guest this week is BBC Medicine and Science correspondent James Gallagher, talking about Covid-19 vaccines, how our genes influence the severity of Covid illness and how ear wax might improve blood sugar monitoring for diabetes. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: People wearing protective masks walk through a street in Tehran in July 2020. Photo credit: Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.)

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 in a pilot trial involving six young patients. Their report appears in the latest edition of the New England Journal of Medicine alongside encouraging results of a CRISPR gene editing therapy for sickle cell disease. Both approaches target the same gene – the result of which is to make bone marrow cells to produce foetal haemoglobin to compensate for people’s faulty adult haemoglobin. BBC Global health correspondent Naomi Grimley has a coronavirus global round up for us, and we report on the discovery of a pair of salivary glands new to medical science – the first new set of organs to be discovered for centuries. Dutch researchers detected them with a sophisticated form of body scanning, hiding where the back of the nasal cavity meets the top of the throat. It’s an anatomical revelation which may have implications for kinder radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. Claudia’s studio guest is Tabitha Mwangi, who is a lecturer in public health at Anglia Ruskin University and has also been a malaria researcher in Kenya. Tabitha talks about the great benefits of giving children four months of malaria prophylaxis tablets during the rainy season in West and Central sub-Sahelian Africa. A study involving millions of children and tens of thousands of health workers halved the number of children dying from malaria. Tabitha also tells Claudia about a simple strategy for improving the success rate in getting people onto TB treatment quickly, and whether schemes in low income countries to encourage mothers to grow their own vegetables to improve their children’s nutrition actually work. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: Dr. Erica Esrick and Manny Johnson, the first patient to participate in the Boston Children’s Hospital sickle cell disease clinical trial. Credit: Boston’s Children’s Hospital.)

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 pill which is already known to be effective at preventing HIV infection. The injection regimen was about 90% more effective at shielding women from the virus than the daily tablet. The trial involves more than 3,000 women in seven Southern and East African countries. Claudia talks to study co-leader Sinead Delany-Moretlwe of the University of Witwatersrand about why this form of PrEP seems to be so effective and whether it will be affordable for low and middle income countries. Chhavi Sachdev reports on informal health workers known as ‘chhota doctors’ who are the backbone of primary health care for the hundreds of millions of rural people in India. They are not formally recognised as health care providers by the authorities and lack medical degrees, but they are the first port of call for many when people feel ill, particularly during India’s coronavirus lockdown. At a time when so many people are stuck indoors working at home, World Health Organisation has published new recommendations on how much physical activity we should be doing for the sake of our health. We talk to Fiona Bull, head of the WHO’s physical activity unit. James Gallagher is the Health Check guest this week talking about Covid-19 vaccines, vitamin D and a step towards a blood test to predict Alzheimer’s disease. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: Female doctor giving a young female patient an injection in her consultation room. Photo credit: Henk Badenhorst/Getty Images.)

Oxford University and Astrazeneca announced interim results from the phase 3 trial of their coronavirus vaccine. The results are promising with efficacy scores ranging from 70% to possibly 90%, depending on the dose of the first of the two inoculations. This vaccine also remains viable when stored at refrigerator temperatures – a logistical advantage compared to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Claudia consults Charlie Wheeler, head of vaccines at the Wellcome Trust, about how this vaccine may advance the ambition of protecting the world from Covid-19. The pandemic has disrupted routine health services in many countries. Maternity services for pregnant women and women in labour have not escaped restrictions. In the UK this has included banning partners from clinics and wards, often for most of labour. Dr Samara Linton reports. High levels of lead exposure in childhood result in smaller, less robust-looking brains in middle age. This is the conclusion of a long-running study of hundreds of people who grew up in the town of Dunedin in New Zealand. They have been followed since their childhoods in the early 1970s, during the era of leaded petrol. At the age of 45, more than 550 of them have had MRI brain scans. This part of the research has been led by Aaron Reuben and Maxwell Elliot at Duke University in the United States. Although leaded petrol is banned in all but one country today, hundreds of millions of children are still exposed to environmental lead levels well above what’s regarded as safe. Epidemiologist Matthew Fox of Boston University also joins Claudia to talk about the disappointing covid antiviral drug remdesivir, coronavirus rapid tests and a flu vaccine grown in plants. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: Laboratory technicians in Italy handle capped vials as part of filling and packaging tests for the large-scale production and supply of the University of Oxford’s Covid-19 vaccine. Photo credit: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images.)

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 the risk of large outbreaks in many countries. Immunisation coverage needs to be maintained at 95% or more to keep measles suppressed. Too many babies have missed routine measles vaccination at 9 months and planned special immunisation campaigns in areas where the coverage was already too low pre-Covid had to be cancelled. We talk to paediatrician Ifedayo Adetifa at the Kemri Wellcome research programme in Kenya who’s been modelling outbreak scenarios in Kenya of this situation. The risk of large outbreaks of measles in Kenya is now much greater, and likely to be worse in other countries in the region. But mounting vaccination campaigns as soon as possible would reduce the risk to zero. Sian Griffiths reports from a Canadian school in Quebec which is in the middle of a Covid-19 red zone. The school’s principal decided to move classes outdoors to reduce the infection risk to pupils and staff. Many lessons are happening in three big wedding marquees erected in the school grounds, and the principal plans to keep this going through the Canadian winter. A new study in BMJ Global Health identifies a widely unrecognised danger to the hundreds of millions of people (mainly women) who have to leave their homes to fetch water for their households. This is physical injury. A survey of more than 6,000 households in 24 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America found that about 15% of them have been injured while fetching water for the family. The researchers were shocked by this. Injuries include broken limbs, dislocations, lacerations and burns. Northwestern University’s Sera Young says the causes range from falling over while carrying the water, falling into wells, physical assault, animal attacks and road accidents between the home and communal water sources. Family doctor Ann Robinson is Claudia’s guest this week to talk about measles, the Moderna Covid vaccine and the latest results from trials of polypills. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: Children outside a field clinic during a vaccination program against measles in Bangui in 2014. Photo credit: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images.)

Health Check examines the excitement around the preliminary announcement of 90% effectiveness of BioNTech and Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine in its phase 3 clinical trial. Claudia Hammond talks to Professor Gregory Poland, head of vaccine research at the Mayo Clinic in the United States about what we do and don’t know about the vaccine at this stage, and how the vaccine may be approved and deployed in the coming months. She consults Kalipso Chalkidou, Professor of Global Health Practice at Imperial College London, about the challenges of getting this vaccine to people in low and middle income countries. One logistical problem is that the vaccine has to be stored at minus 80 degrees Celsuis. BBC medical and science correspondent James Gallagher also joins Claudia to explain the innovative nature of the vaccine and how its interim success bodes well for the development of other coronavirus vaccines. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: Medications in sealed vials with a disposable plastic medical syringe. Photo credit: GIPhotoStock/Getty Images.)

Some of the first large scale trials of Covid-19 vaccines may report results to regulators in the next few weeks. These first results will reveal how effective these vaccines are at preventing mild Covid illness but they’re unlikely to tell us how good they are at preventing serious disease and death. Should governments permit wide scale vaccination of populations based on that level of data when this may compromise learning more about their efficacy? And might widespread deployment of first generation Covid-19 vaccines make it harder to properly trial vaccines at earlier stages of development but which may have the potential to be more effective? Claudia Hammond discusses the dilemmas with Dr Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Vaccine Research Group. People who are double-jointed are much more prone to suffering from anxiety and panics attacks. Reporter Madeleine Finlay investigates the link. Claudia consults mental health experts for tips to help people get through the coming months of uncertainty and anxiety. Boston University epidemiologist Matthew Fox joins Claudia with insights on vaccine hesitancy, how Namibia is maintaining its HIV treatment services under Covid-19 restrictions and whether antibiotics can prevent surgery for appendicitis. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: A doctor preparing a coronavirus vaccine. Photo credit: Filippo Bacci/Getty Images.)

For months now, many people hospitalised with Covid-19 have been given convalescent plasma – donated blood serum from people who’ve already had the illness. The hope has been that transfusing donated antibodies against the coronavirus will help to prevent deaths and serious illness. Convalescent plasma therapy received a high profile boost in the USA in August when the Trump administration announced emergency use authorisation for the treatment, despite the lack of robust evidence for its efficacy against the coronavirus. Now the results of the first completed randomised clinical trial of the therapy have been published in the British Medical Journal. The findings are not particularly encouraging. In this Indian study, there was no difference in the death rate or the progression from moderate to severe disease between patients given the therapy and those receiving only standard care. Claudia Hammond talks to Dr Aparna Mukherjee of the India Council of Medical Research and the BBC’s medicine and science correspondent James Gallagher about the prospects now for convalescent plasma therapy. Health Check also asks whether vaccines against other diseases might provide some protection against the coronavirus, and features a report from California where a lot of mental health counselling has gone online or on the phone since the pandemic took hold. Reporter Alison Van Diggelen asks people with mental health problems and their therapists how they feel about the loss of face-to-face sessions. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker (Picture: An Iraqi phlebotomist holds a bag of plasma donated by a recovered Covid-19 patient. Photo credit: Asaad Niazi/AFP/Getty Images.)

As South Africa goes into lockdown what measures are they taking? Plus big data in Taiwan and a round-up of drug trials, antibody testing and low cost ventilators. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Geraldine Fitzgerald (Image: Microscopic view of influenza virus cells. Photo credit: Panorama Images/Getty Images.)

Many people with autistic spectrum disorder learn techniques to overcome their difficulties interacting with others. The first study that has looked at the consequences of these compensatory strategies reveals some benefits but also significant downsides. The consequences can be stress, low self-esteem, mental illness and misdiagnosis. Claudia talks to lead researcher Professor Francesca Happé from King’s College London and Eloise Stark, a woman with autism. A new research programme at Imperial College London is investigating the link between obesity and infertility in men. Madeleine Finlay explores why weight gain and other factors of modern life might be influencing men’s sperm health. Tick-borne Lyme disease is on the rise in the northern hemisphere. Lyme disease can develop into a serious illness. It is hard to diagnosis early and delayed diagnosis means lengthy treatment and recovery. Dr Mollie Jewett at the University of Central Florida is working on a much faster means of diagnosis, and a more effective treatment. Deborah Cohen meets Dr Jewett and her ticks. Graham Easton is in the Health Check studio to talk about links between hearing loss and dementia, and the worrying spread of bacteria resistant to carbapenems, one of the most important kinds of antibiotic drugs. (Photo caption: A young woman standing in the middle of a crowded street – credit: Getty Images) Health Check was presented by Claudia Hammond with comments from Dr Graham Easton. Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker

Claudia Hammond visits the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. Every year a minority of births goes wrong and the baby is deprived of oxygen, which can lead to long-term brain damage and conditions such as cerebral palsy. Early treatment can reduce the likelihood of permanent disability or even death, so a team at University College London have now developed a new portable device which uses harmless infra-red to detect signs of brain injury in newborn babies, minutes after birth. It is called Cyril and consultant neurologist Subhabrata Mitra and Dr Ilias Tachtsidis, Reader in Biomedical Engineering, demonstrate it to Claudia. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a well-known problem, with one insidious thriving place being medical implants, where they form impenetrable biofilms. But there could be a solution from scientists at Nottingham University. Kim Hardie, a molecular microbiologist, is part of a team that has developed special slippery coatings for biomedical devices, such as catheters, that stop bacteria attaching and sticking in the first place. It is hoped these super biomaterials will help in the fight against super bugs, which has huge implications for infection rates in hospitals globally. It is estimated that one in nine people experience some form of breathlessness, which is most common in conditions such as heart failure, lung disease, panic disorder and Parkinson’s. But there are also significant numbers of people who suffer from breathlessness which cannot be explained. A team at Oxford University hypothesise this might be driven by networks in the brain. So using brain scans and computational modelling, Breathe Oxford has examined breathlessness in athletes, healthy people and those with chronic lung disease, seeking clues as to why some individuals become disabled by their breathlessness, while others with the same lung function live normal healthy lives. Claudia discusses this relationship between breathlessness and brain perception with lead researcher and anaesthetist Professor Kyle Pattinson and research scientist Sarah Finnegan. They also, using a ‘Steppatron’, demonstrate what it is like to live with a chronic lung condition. Mirror-touch synaesthesia is a rare type of synaesthesia where people can actually feel something that they can see being done to someone else. For example they might seem to feel a brush on their hand whilst watching someone else having their hand stroked. Dr Natalie Bowling from the University of Sussex researches this condition. It is estimated that 30% of the population could experience some form of synaesthesia and Claudia also meets Kaitlyn Hova, a violinist with visual-auditory synaesthesia. She demonstrates her violin, which lights up with different colours according to how she sees the notes. (Photo caption: Members of the MetaboLight team working together to develop novel light technologies to assess brain injury severity in newborns within hours after birth - credit: MetaboLight) Producer: Helena Selby