By BBC World Service
Health issues and medical breakthroughs from around the world.
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
“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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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. ...
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 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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...