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Long Covid – the latest
Health Check
Oct 26, 2022

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 Claudia how growing resistance to anti-fungal medication resistance, just like antibiotic resistance, is making the problem even worse. Graham also highlights growing health concerns about the recreational use of the drug Nitrous Oxide or laughing gas around the world.

One hundred and fifty million people are thought to have Long Covid, debilitating symptoms which persist long after Covid-19 infection, yet the condition is still little understood. To spell out what we do, and don’t, know about Long Covid, a patient and a professor have got together to write The Long Covid Handbook. Patient advocate and film maker Gez Medinger and Professor of Immunology at Imperial College, London, Danny Altman, describe the gaps in medical knowledge and the impact on sufferers of the slow progress on diagnostics and treatment.

A recent survey in Chile revealed mental health to be the top health concern in the country. Jane Chambers reports on a Santiago charity called the Itaca Foundation, finding great success by pairing up vulnerable younger people with older people for mutual support.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Fiona Hill

(Picture: A woman resting after running with a protective face mask in the city. Photo credit: Drazen Zigic/Getty Images.)

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Apr 22, 2026
Making surgery safer for infants

We learn about a new injectable microgel to help reduce bleeding in infants who require surgical care. In a mice model, it reduced bleeding by at least 50%. Ashley Brown, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at North Carolina State University and UNC Chapel Hill tells presenter Claudia Hammond more about this new material her team has designed.

Joined by Professor of Global Health and Epidemiology at Boston University in the US, Dr Matthew Fox, Claudia hears about a mystery illness that is being investigated by health officials in Burundi, which has caused five deaths and sickened thirty-five people. So far lab analysis of the illness - which causes fever, vomiting, and diarrhoea - has been negative for Ebola and Marburg viruses, Rift Valley fever, and others.

We hear about influential analysis from Cochrane which has concluded that "breakthrough" Alzheimer's drugs are unlikely to benefit patients. Researchers said the impact was "well below" what was needed to make a difference to dementia patients' lives. However, their report has also provoked a vicious backlash from equally esteemed scientists who label it as fundamentally flawed.

We’re joined by health journalist Katie Silver in Mexico, who brings us the news that the President, Claudia Sheinbaum, has announced the details of a plan to introduce universal healthcare – no mean feat in country of 130 million people.

And we hear about an experiment that was done by academics to see if they could trick AI chatbots into believing in an entirely fake disease.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Jonathan Blackwell


26min 28sec

Long Covid – the latest

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