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Health Check: Faster cheaper Covid testing in Rwanda

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A health worker collects a sample from a man during the Covid-19 crisis

2020/06/24 GMT

Faster cheaper Covid testing in Rwanda

BBC World Service - Health Check, Faster cheaper Covid testing in Rwanda

Rwandan scientists on their pooled testing approach to Covid which slashes costs and time

Coronavirus pooled testing; lockdowns and Black Lives Matter; Taiwan nurses; Covid-19 and meat factories; pandemic sleep habits; migraine with aura and cardiovascular disease link

In lower income countries, shortages and costs of Covid-19 testing kits undermine the efforts to keep the virus under control. But Rwanda is now implementing a new form of pooled testing which can identify all infected individuals in a population without testing everyone, and it does so at tiny fraction of the cost.  It was devised by Prof Wilfred Ndifon and Prof Leon Mutesa in Kigali. 

Taiwan has been one of the countries that has most effectively kept its population safe from the spread of Covid-19. Cindy Sui visits one of Taipei’s main hospitals to see the super-rigorous regime in place to protect its nurses from infection and prevent the spread of the virus from the hospital to the community.

For the BBC’s Rethink season, sleep researcher Matthew Walker muses on how lockdowns have changed the sleep habits of many people. 

Boston University epidemiologist Matthew Fox is Claudia’s studio guest. They discuss why US public health researchers support both lockdowns and the Black Lives Matter protests, why meat-processing factories are the sites of notable Covid outbreaks, and new research which finds that women who suffer with migraines with aura have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.   

Presenter: Claudia Hammond
Producer:  Andrew Luck-Baker

(Picture: A health worker collects a sample from a man in Kenya during the Covid-19 crisis. Photo credit: Luis Tato/AFP/Getty Images.)

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