Research shows that large numbers of Covid deaths could have been prevented if people in low and middle income countries had better access to vaccines. But this week the World Trade Organisation said it could not reach a consensus on waiving intellectual property rights on Covid-19 tests and treatments for poorer countries. Claudia Hammond is joined by BBC Africa Health Correspondent Dorcas Wangira in Nairobi, to discuss the impact of vaccine inequity on her part of the world.
Dorcas also brings news of a new Ebola study showing that even people vaccinated once they were already infected with Ebola had a substantially lower risk of dying. It suggests that not only does the vaccine help prevent Ebola, it also improves the survival odds of people who have already contracted it.
Oral Rehydration Salts are a lifesaving and inexpensive treatment for diarrhoeal disease, a leading cause of death for children around the world. It’s cheap, effective and has been recommended by the World Health Organization for decades - so why is it under-prescribed? That’s a question that researchers at the University of Southern California set out to answer by sending ‘mystery patients’ to thousands of healthcare providers in India. Professor Neeraj Sood tells Claudia what they discovered.
Heart pacemakers are a standard procedure in some parts of the world. A small implanted device send electrical pulses to the heart to keep it beating regularly. But devices can malfunction and the batteries don’t last forever. During each replacement there is a risk of serious complications and infection. Reporter Hannah Fisher watches the procedure and asks why the batteries don’t last longer.
And a new study suggests that if the fourth digit on the hand of a professional footballer is longer than their second digit, they can metabolise oxygen more efficiently. This comes on the back of previous research about how differences in finger length can be a marker of heart attack and severity of Covid-19. Can you really make predictions about someone’s health based on the way their hand looks?
What’s happening with girls’ mental health?
Is turbulence injuring more and more flyers?
Nigeria rolls out world’s first 5-in-1 meningitis vaccine
How we hope
Puerto Rico declares dengue fever emergency
Pig kidney transplanted into patient
Should we stop talking about long Covid?
A promising new cancer treatment
One billion obese people
Junior doctors strike in South Korea
Dengue outbreak in Latin America
Getting vaccinations to remote South Sudan
Surviving Noma disease
Cape Verde eliminates malaria
Endurance
Are outcomes better with female surgeons?
2024 in global health
A year in health in review
When will we have an HIV vaccine?
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