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Health Check: Preparing for Future Epidemics

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10/06/2015

Preparing for Future Epidemics

BBC World Service - Health Check, Preparing for Future Epidemics

After Ebola are we prepared for future epidemics?

Lobbying the G7 to back a global vaccine development plan. How motorbikes are being used to tackle mosquitoes. Plus, the emotional reaction to Indian raga music.

This time last year the full scale of the Ebola outbreak was just being realised as governments and global institutions found themselves on the back foot trying to respond to this growing epidemic. This week, scientists have been asking the G7 to better prepare the world for future epidemics. Vaccine developer Adrian Hill from the Jenner Institute in Oxford explains how a vaccine development plan could allow much quicker responses to future disease outbreaks.

Controlling mosquitoes and the diseases borne from them pose a significant health and logistical challenge in many tropical countries. But a new insecticide spraying kit which attaches to motorbikes and runs off the engine is allowing access to previously hard to reach areas. Ben Tavener reports from the favelas in Rio de Janeiro.

It has been known for a long time that music in different keys is associated with different emotions but much of the research focuses on Western music. Now Dr Bhishma Chakrabati from Reading University has been studying the effects of classical Indian ragas on mood.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond joined by James Gallagher
Producer: Melanie Brown

(Picture: Vaccine  manufacturing. Credit: Getty Images)

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