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Health Check: WHO Gets a New Director General

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2017/05/24 GMT

WHO Gets a New Director General

BBC World Service - Health Check, WHO Gets a New Director General

After a hard fought campaign, the elections are over and the WHO has a new leader

WHO elects a new leader; Measuring whether holocaust stress is passed on across generations; the microbes keeping the vagina healthy and the effect of unprotected sex

This week, at the World Health Assembly’s 70th meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, member states elected their new leader. Following on from our interview with the final three candidates in last week’s programme, Claudia is joined by BBC Geneva correspondent Imogen Foulkes who has been following the contenders’ campaigns. She discusses what priorities and challenges might lie ahead for the newly appointed Director General.

Holocaust Brain 
The trauma of the Holocaust has been well-documented - but did life in the camps actually change the biological makeup of those who survived them? Scientists in the Czech city of Brno are examining whether Holocaust survivors experienced changes in brain structure, DNA and levels of stress hormones – and if they’ve passed those changes on to their descendants. Our correspondent Rob Cameron has been speaking to the scientists leading the research as well as some of the volunteers.

Vagina Microbiome
A study in Australia has shed more light on the collection of microbes which help to keep a woman’s vagina healthy. Unprotected sex can not only spread sexually transmitted diseases – bacteria from the man’s penis can replace those which normally live in the vagina – increasing the pH and the risk of bacterial vaginosis (BV), an infection which produces a fishy-smelling discharge. BV is often regarded as a nuisance rather than a serious infection – but it can increase a woman’s risk of HIV infection and may be passed on during childbirth which can result in sepsis in a newborn baby. Researchers hope to create microbicide-impregnated vaginal rings, to help women maintain a balanced vaginal microbiome.

(Photo: New World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Ethiopia's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (R) reacts after his election during the World Health Assembly on 23 May, 2017, in Geneva. Credit: Fabrice  Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

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