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Health Check: 24/08/2011

24/08/2011

BBC World Service - Health Check, 24/08/2011

Super resistant gonorrhea; Fasting during the Olympics and children going hungry in the US

Super resistant gonorrhea - is it the next super bug? The effects of fasting for Muslim athletes during the Olympics and children going hungry in the United States

Super resistant gonorrhea
A strain of gonorrhea isolated from a sex worker in Japan is super-resistant to the strongest antibiotics available to treat it. Just a few weeks ago scientists from the Swedish Reference Laboratory warned that gonorrhoea could become a global threat to public health.  Why is gonorrhea able to become so resistant and what can be done to tackle the problem? Professor Cathy Ison from UK’s Health Protection Agency, in Colindale explains.  

Fasting during the Olympics
The Moscow Olympics in 1980 was the last time the games coincided with Ramadan but next year, in 2012 the two events coincide again. Team GB British rower Mo Sbihi has already decided to postpone his fast until after the games. But how will fasting affect those who do fast during the games? Claudia Hammond is joined by Ron Maughan, Professor of Sports Science at Loughborough University who chaired a working group reviewing the evidence.

Children going hungry in the US
In the United States children are heading back to school after the summer holidays. Across the country 21 million children living in poverty get free or subsidised meals at school, but when the schools are closed many of them go hungry. So some cities are running summer feeding programmes to ensure that children stay healthy during the holidays. Health Check’s Laura Sheeter reports from one programme in New Orleans

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