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Health Check: What’s behind a drop in premature births during lockdown?

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A nurse carries a premature baby

2020/07/22 GMT

What’s behind a drop in premature births during lockdown?

BBC World Service - Health Check, What’s behind a drop in premature births during lockdown?

Irish and Danish doctors spot a fall in premature births during Covid pandemic

Covid-19 vaccines: promising trial results; What’s caused a drop in premature births in Ireland and Denmark?; Blue Health: mental health boosted by a trip to the seaside

Early results from potential vaccines against Covid-19 have shown that they do trigger an immune response. Astra Zeneca’s vaccine created by Oxford University and the Ad5 vaccine from China both adapt a harmless virus with a coronavirus “spike protein” which they hope will train the body’s immune system. The Moderna and Pfizer/BioNtech vaccines both inject the coronavirus’s genetic code. The scientists in Oxford hope further trials in Brazil and the US where there are still high levels of infection could help to show if their vaccine could stop people from becoming infected. 

During lockdown a doctor in Limerick in Ireland noticed that the number of babies being born very early had dropped dramatically. A similar pattern was noticed in the Danish city of Copenhagen – where the number of babies born before 28 weeks fell by 90%. Now experts across the world want to see whether less stress, lower pollution or less exposure to infectious diseases could play a role. 

When did you last swim the sea or take a walk by a lake? Just being in a green space benefits our mental health. But psychologists are now discovering that there is something extra-special about being close to water.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond
Producer: Paula McGrath

(Picture: A nurse carries a premature baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Burnley General Hospital, UK. Photo credit: Hannah McKay/Reuters.)

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