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Health Check: 05/10/2011

05/10/2011

BBC World Service - Health Check, 05/10/2011

Could guinea worm disease soon be eradicated? Some predict it will happen as soon at 2019

Could guinea worm disease soon be eradicated? Should psychiatrists do more to help patients with side effects of anti-psychotic medication? And is it dangerous to wake up someone who’s sleepwalking?

GUINEA WORM DISEASE
Is guinea worm disease set to become only the second human disease in history to be eradicated? In the last 25 years cases have been reduced by an impressive 99%, but it is still present in South Sudan and there are small numbers of cases in Mali and Ethiopia. Today the former US President Jimmy Carter, the World Health Organisation and Britain's International Development Minister were in London to announce their intention to rid the world of guinea worm for good. 

Professor Sandy Cairncross from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine tells Claudia Hammond what happens to a person who has drunk from water infected with guinea worm.  

With cases down from three million in the 80s to fewer than 2000 today, it shows that there are measures that can be taken to prevent it. Dr Don Hopkins, a public health expert from the Carter Center in the US which has been spearheaded the campaign, explains.

HEALTH MYTH – SLEEPWALKING
Is it dangerous to wake someone up when they're sleepwalking? Professor Matthew Walker from the sleep clinic at University College London Hospitals explains.

ANTI-PSYCHOTIC DRUGS 
Are psychiatrists doing enough to deal with the serious health side-effects which seem to be associated with the newer forms of anti-psychotic medication? These newer so-called atypical drugs have far fewer of the unpleasant side-effects of the older types of medication. But there's a flip-side - some people taking them very quickly put on weight and increase their risk of diabetes and heart disease.  

Worryingly, it's already known that those with serious mental health problems have a shorter life expectancy than the rest of the population. Alice Evans, who started taking anti-psychotic medication fifteen years ago, tells Claudia Hammond about her side effects. 

With good monitoring from doctors, and the right advice, the effects on health can be reduced. But new research conducted in five countries including Australia, Spain and Canada by psychiatrist Dr Alex Mitchell at Leicester University in Britain, has found that, unlike in Alice’s case, not all mental health professionals are monitoring their patients' physical health sufficiently.

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