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HealthC: World AIDS Day Special 30 Nov 08

Mon, Dec 1 Listen

December 1st is the 20th World Aids Day and Health Check this week is devoted to where we are in our fight against HIV. What is the current state of the AIDS epidemic and are there new ways of preventing the spread of the virus? Also, a discussion on the controversial practice of prosecuting people for passing on HIV; a report on the World Service Trust's Condom, Condom campaign; and why do children in South Africa whose parents have died from AIDS suffer such elevated rates of mental health...

HealthC: Vitamin supplements 23 Nov 08

Mon, Nov 24 Listen

In this week's Health Check with Claudia Hammond: Vitamin supplements and heart disease; Polio vaccination campaign in Chad; Tissue engineering transplant; Combatting child hallucinations.

HealthC: New Statins Trial 16 Nov 08

Mon, Nov 17 Listen

A new trial suggests that statins could benefit people with low as well as high cholesterol; treating obstetric fistula in Kenya; why some people enjoy hearing voices; a new method to identify counterfeit drugs; and how 85% of Rwandans now have health insurance. With Claudia Hammond.

HealthC: Suicidal UK South Asian Women 09 Nov 08

Mon, Nov 10 Listen

South Asian women over the age of 65 living in the UK are twice as likely as other women to kill themselves. Yet we had no idea…. The more we travel around the world, the more bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics. Are we heading for a future where antibiotics don’t work? Could poetry help patients deal with cancer? And could blue-ish lighting in offices help us all to work and sleep better?

HealthC: Artificial Heart Transplants 01 Nov 08

Mon, Nov 3 Listen

The world’s first full artificial heart. Could this be the answer for the twenty thousand patients around the world waiting for heart transplants? Is there anything wrong with selling your organs? We hear from a kidney recipient who believes paying people to give up a kidney is the only way to sort out the worldwide shortage of organs for transplant. The Brazilian health activist who believes that the use of a simple drug could prevent TB in people with HIV. And getting doctors to understand...

HealthC: Health Crunch 26 Oct 08

Sun, Oct 26 Listen

Every year companies donate millions of dollars to charitable health projects around the world, but with the current economic crisis, will the donations dry up? What not to wear if you’re a doctor. In a bid to reduce infection rates some hospitals are banning the traditional white coat, but will it make any difference? And half a century after the first thalidomide babies were born we find out what’s happened to them now they’re middle-aged. And the big health news this week – the new drug...

HealthC: Music Therapy 19 Oct 08

Mon, Oct 20 Listen

In a special programme, Claudia Hammond reports from a conference held in southern England on the health benefits of music therapy.

HealthC: Drugs and money 12 Oct 08

Sun, Oct 12 Listen

Persuading people to stay off illegal drugs. How about bribing them with money? A Nigerian marriage bureau specifically for people with HIV. How a single thirty minute counselling session can help sex workers on the Mexican US border to have safer sex. And the world’s first 3D animated virtual heart.

HealthC: Insomnia 05 Oct 08

Sun, Oct 5 Listen

The nightmare of not being able to get to sleep…the misery of insomnia and some possible solutions. And if you do finally drift off what if the baby wakes you up? Does a doctor have the secret of soothing a crying baby? And how children can survive cancer.

HealthC: Pakistan Vaccination Programme 28 Sep 08

Sun, Sep 28 Listen

Thousands of people have reported near-death experiences after they almost died. A new global study is determined to get the bottom of this. We’re getting down to the fundamentals of life - human waste - the link between latrines and health. Life with epilepsy when there’s not enough to eat. And Pakistan’s new vaccination programme.

HealthC: Sniffing out Skin Cancer 21 Sep 08

Sun, Sep 21 Listen

We look forward to the day when there might be a scanner which detects skin cancer by its smell. Famous for asking the Indian President if she could die - the woman who’s life was ruined by rheumatoid arthritis and she was forced to depend on her elderly mother - two years on she says she’s glad to be alive. And freezing samples from mothers’ and babies in Tanzania, then taking them all the way to the United States to research placental malaria. And the shock of receiving a diagnosis of...

HealthC: Cervical Cancer 14 Sep 08

Sun, Sep 14 Listen

The difference the new cervical cancer vaccine could make if it was rolled out in the 22 poorest countries in the Asia Pacific region. How do you know whether you’re overweight – stand in front of the mirror and look for the bulgy bits? Will screening for kidney disease make a difference? And the latest on the cholera epidemic in Guinea-Bissau. Could funeral practices be contributing to the problem?

HealthC: Ethiopia Malnutrition 07 Sep 08

Tue, Sep 9 Listen

With growing numbers of children with malnutrition in Ethiopia we hear from a feeding station where desperate people are held back with whips. Weve long known that men are more likely to get heart disease than women and it turns out they might be able to blame their hormones. African countries get together to try to prevent environmentally-related diseases. And imagine having a headache all the time

HealthC:Fat but Fit 31 August 08

Sun, Aug 31 Listen

Can you be fat and fit? - why slim people aren’t necessarily healthy. The pain said to be as bad as childbirth...the pain of passing a kidney stone. How time-lapse photography could help in the fight against cancer. How we’ve got it all wrong about the reasons mosquitoes are repelled by DEET. And the works of art painted by patients in a Senegalese psychiatric ward.

HealthC: Pain 24 Aug 08

Sun, Aug 24 Listen

Why patients in some parts of the world don’t get pain relief; donating a kidney to a friend; delivering vaccines through the nose rather than by injections; and living with the risk of having a brain haemorrhage.

HealthC: Doctors in distress 17 Aug 08

Sun, Aug 17 Listen

Why doctors are more likely than the rest of the population to suffer from depression and anxiety, but less likely to ask for help. We hear from the Indian region nicknamed “the abode of snakes”. The genetic differences which make a person ten times more likely to develop schizophrenia. And life with sickle cell anaemia….

HealthC: Preventing HIV transmission 10 Aug 08

Sun, Aug 10 Listen

A statement from Switzerland says that people with HIV are very unlikely to pass the virus on to their partners if they’re receiving effective treatment, but is this advice safe? Could hypnosis help people with dementia? How do you tell whether babies are in pain? And while we’re on the subject of pain – life with bonebreakers disease or dengue fever…. And can a new kind of lie detector from India get at the truth in a person’s mind?

HealthC: Gene Therapy 3rd Aug 08

Sun, Aug 3 Listen

Is it OK to test brand new gene therapies on people living in the developing world? The boy who thought the 9/11 attacks were his fault because he’d not stepped on a line on a road…. The man whose grandmother convinced him that he could do anything despite the polio which had left him without the use of his legs. And the famous prisoner in Russia who’s unintentionally drawing attention to the plight of prisoners with HIV/AIDS...

HealthC: Migraine 27 Jul 08

Sun, Jul 27 Listen

New research that could finally explain what happens in the brain when someone has a migraine. What skeletons found on building sites can tell us about health through the ages. What would you do if you knew you had an 87% chance of developing breast cancer? We hear one woman’s story. And why does time slow down when you’re really scared? New research on our perception of time, using a truly terrifying method.

HealthC: Mapping the Brain 21 Jul 08

Mon, Jul 21 Listen

This week, a high-resolution map of the brain; providing sanitary towels to women in rural India; a discussion on the involvement of psychologists in interrogations in Guantanamo Bay; and what it's like living with narcolepsy.

HealthC: Malnutrition in Egypt 14 Jul 08

Mon, Jul 14 Listen

This week, we hear how soaring food prices are forcing people in Egypt to change their diet; charity MSF describe a new therapeutic food for sufferers of severe malnourishment; why politicians in Uganda are calling for people infected with jiggers to be arrested; traditional healers helping people with mental health problems in Ecuador; and Claudia visits a doping clinic gearing up for the Olympics.

HealthC: Surgeon's Checklist 06 Jul 08

Mon, Jul 7 Listen

Surgeon and author Atul Gawande describes a new checklist for surgeons to prevent mistakes in theatre. We hear what it's like to live with cardiomyopathy. The pros and cons of giving a child a placebo. News of a campaign to introduce syringes that can only be used once to prevent the spread of disease. And new research into a form of synaesthesia involving touch.

HealthC: Soldiers after war 29 Jun 08

Sun, Jun 29 Listen

An American system to help soldiers to stay sane after they’ve been to war….. Who would you trust to prescribe your drugs – your doctor or a computer? Forget shiny stainless steel in hospitals. How about using copper? And why so many women in Mali think it’s OK for their husbands to hit them if they discuss politics or refuse sex.

HealthC: Fake Drugs 22 Jun 08

Sun, Jun 22 Listen

The massive illegal trade in fake drugs - when you buy medicine do you really know what you’re getting? The mental scars left behind for the survivors of the Burmese cyclone … Do you ever get the feeling that someone’s got it in for you, that they’re out to get you? New research shows a third of us are paranoid. And …..a rather unusual beauty contest – Miss Landmine, where the contestants have all been injured by landmines in Angola.

HealthC: Drug Trial Transparency 15 Jun 08

Sun, Jun 15 Listen

How to encourage drug companies to be more open with their trials, so that we can know the results - good or bad….. How to stop diseases passing from people to gorillas and vice versa in Rwanda….. Drugs in sport – could genetic chance mean that some people can evade dope tests? And how the smell of stink bombs could be put to good medical use.

HealthC: HIV & TB 08 Jun 08

Sun, Jun 8 Listen

A third of people with HIV have another disease – tuberculosis. A Kenyan health worker speaks at the WHO - it’s no good tackling HIV if TB isn’t addressed at the same time. The surgeons in Germany imagining their way to doing better operations. Could a computer game lead to new drug discoveries? How nuclear bomb testing done decades ago can tell us about the body’s fat cells. And the leukaemia patient who has one thing he wants to tell everyone about while he still has the chance.

HealthC: Ghana Cancer Part Two 01 Jun 08

Sun, Jun 1 Listen

Claudia Hammond continues her report on health care in Ghana. She hears how the death of Ama Sumani, a terminally ill woman who was sent back to Ghana from Britain towards the end of her life, has raised awareness about cancer. Claudia travels to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi which serves as the only cancer centre in the north of the country and caters to 12 million people. Claudia talks to AfrOx (The African Oxford Consortium) which wants to develop a cancer plan for the...

HealthC: Ghana Cancer Part One 25 May 08

Sun, May 25 Listen

By 2020 there will be a million new cases of cancer in Africa every year. Claudia Hammond visits Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana which is the only cancer centre in the north of the country and serves 12 million people. With referrals also coming from neighbouring countries the resources are stretched. Oncologist Dr Baffour Awuah says that the biggest problem they have is that many people come to the hospital too late for their cancer to be cured. Ghana is ideally situated to...

HealthC: Cluster Bombs 18 May 08

Sun, May 18 Listen

A Cluster Munitions Conference to try to ban the use of cluster bombs. The tragic injuries inflicted by cluster bombs and how they change peoples’ lives - we hear from a man in Laos who was blown up by a cluster bomb while he was digging a fish pond for his family … A Health Check listener tells us how she’s been treated just because she has white hair and pale skin ….. and.... Why is the world’s blood pressure is going up?

HealthC: Global Health 11 May 08

Sun, May 11 Listen

An academic who believes that the world’s health will never improve if trade is put first. Could the horse tranquiliser ketamine work as a new treatment for depression? How to prevent the spread of HIV from mothers to babies in Russia. And we hear from Malawi where half of all children have stunted growth due to malnutrition.

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