Health Check

Mar 27 2025 241 ep. 27 mins 37.3k
Health Check Podcast artwork

Health issues and medical breakthroughs from around the world.

  Health & Fitness
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How do funding cuts feel?

Mar 27 2025 26 mins  
What does it feel like to be part of a study which might have its funding cut? Marty Reiswig has a rare genetic mutation that means he will get Alzheimer’s disease in his forties or fifties. For fifteen years he’s been part of medical studies into his condition, but now, with the NIH announcing funding cuts, he’s worried the studies will stop. Also on the program, would you d

Judge blocks further USAID shutdown

Mar 19 2025 26 mins  
A federal judge has said the shuttering of USAID is ‘likely unconstitutional’, while the Trump administration has been ordered to pay back bills for USAID. But what difference is this making on the ground? Global health journalist Andrew Green is in Uganda finding out. Also on the show, a new safety trial shows yearly injections of the drug lenacapivir may be able to prevent HI

Measles spreads in the Americas

Mar 12 2025 26 mins  
The Americas are in danger of losing their measles elimination status as the disease spreads due to under vaccination. Also on the show, a study finds that continuous glucose monitors may be overestimating blood sugar levels in healthy adults. And it’s been ten years since Brazil experienced and epidemic of microcephaly due to the Zika virus. What have we learned in that time? Pr

Ninety percent of USAID programs cut

Mar 05 2025 26 mins  
As the Trump administration cuts 90% of programs funded by the US Agency for International Development, we look at the effect on global health. Also on the program, violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo is hindering the country’s ongoing MPox response – just as a new, more transmissible strain is discovered. And, a look at an initiative trying to improve women’s mental

Improving global encephalitis care

Feb 26 2025 26 mins  
Encephalitis can be a debilitating condition, but many people have never even heard of it. A new global report looks at how we can improve diagnosis and treatment.Also on the program, new research seems to indicate that antidepressents might speed cognitive decline in dementia patients, but do they really? We take a closer look at some of the caveats. And a gene therapy for toddler

The global oxygen crisis

Feb 19 2025 26 mins  
The global need for medical oxygen is high, but there are huge gaps in safe and affordable access. The first report of its kind identifies not only who is most vulnerable, but how the world can strengthen the supply of medical oxygen to improve public health and pandemic preparedness. We hear first-hand the impact of the USAID freeze on health clinicians in practice. And we learn h

The psychology of nostalgia

Feb 12 2025 26 mins  
Do you look back on the past with rose-tinted spectacles, memories of the good old days accompanied by warm, fuzzy feelings? Or when you reflect on the past is it hard to do so without a tinge of sadness? Whether you fall on the more bitter or more sweet side, this is the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia. But nostalgia was not always just a feeling. Historian Agnes Arnold Forster t

Guinea eliminates sleeping sickness

Feb 05 2025 26 mins  
As Guinea becomes the latest country to eliminate sleeping sickness, how close are we to defeating the disease completely? Also on the program, what does a massive shakeup at the US Agency for International Development mean for global health? And a new discovery is shedding a bit more light on a neural fossil in our ears. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Margaret Sessa-Hawkins

USA issues stop-work order on global aid

Jan 30 2025 26 mins  
What will President Trump’s order stopping work on foreign aid projects mean for global health?Also on the program, a new method for repairing heart muscles using stem cells shows promise, and do weight-loss drugs also stop the ‘food noise’ so many people hear? GP and medical journalist Graham Easton joins Claudia in studio to discuss.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Marg

A WHO without the United States

Jan 22 2025 26 mins  
As President Trump signals his intention to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, what could the global health ramifications be?Also, Meta moves from an independent fact-checking program to community notes - how will this affect health misinformation across the company’s platforms? A new rapid test that could help diagnose Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic fever