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Health Check: 02/11/2011

02/11/2011

BBC World Service - Health Check, 02/11/2011

New DIY cervical smear test, vitamin C and colds, report on palliative care worldwide

25,000 women trial a new DIY cervical smear test; does vitamin C prevent colds; report on palliative care worldwide; how Uganda is improving its palliative care

DIY CERVICAL SMEAR TEST
25,000 women in Mexico compared a new DIY cervical smear test with the traditional test where a woman goes to a clinic to have a sample of cells scraped from the neck of the womb which are then examined under a microscope for any signs of abnormality. Professor Attila Lorinz from the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine in London tells Claudia Hammond that four times as many cases were detected by the new DIY test than by the traditional method

HEALTH MYTH – VITAMIN C AND COLDS
In our series examining health folklore, Professor Ron Eccles, Director of the Common Cold Centre in Cardiff, talks about whether vitamin C stops you getting a cold or shortens it if you’ve already caught one

PALLIATIVE CARE WORLDWIDE
A new study mapping the care available worldwide, conducted with the International Observatory on End of Life Care at Lancaster University, has revealed that 42% of countries still have no provision for end of life care and 80% of the world’s population has no or low access to pain medication.

Claire Morris from the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance outlines the situation to Claudia Hammond. Joshua Mmali reports from Kawempe Homecare Clinic in Kampala which is offering palliative care, including morphine, to disadvantaged people with terminal diseases. Dr Samuel Guma and Faith Mwangi-Powell, Director of the African Palliative Care Association, are his guides.

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