Health Check

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

(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

(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?

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

Image: Pregnant woman receiving a coronavirus vaccine in Tel Aviv, Israel

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.

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

(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.

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

(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.