Original version

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

Health Check

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Health issues and medical breakthroughs from around the world.

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

Health Check: Why measles is sweeping through Afghanistan

Magazines & Reviews

Afghan children in Herat province

2022/02/23 GMT

Why measles is sweeping through Afghanistan

BBC World Service - Health Check, Why measles is sweeping through Afghanistan

Cases rise against backdrop of malnutrition and low vaccination rates

Cases rise against backdrop of malnutrition and low vaccination rates; and how the pandemic has revamped calls for healthcare independence.

This week on Health Check, polio makes an unwelcome return to the African continent and measles cases are soaring among children in Afghanistan. We hear from WHO spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris and Médecins Sans Frontières’ Sarah Vuylsteke and Maxime Pirard who are based at Herat Regional Hospital in western Afghanistan.  

We also hear how the pandemic has impacted children worldwide, from disruption to routine vaccination services to studies suggesting high mortality rates among children with Covid-19 in sub-Saharan Africa.  

Now Covid-19 has exposed gaps in health care systems and inequalities in societies around the world. We discuss how the pandemic has galvanised calls for healthcare independence for African countries, and Dr Yen Lam Minh and Dr Louise Thwaites tell us about the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit programme which will develop high-quality intensive care in Vietnam. 

Our guest is public health expert Dr Tabitha Mwangi who managed the Cambridge Africa programme at Cambridge University.  

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton 
Producers: Samara Linton and Ilan Goodman

(Picture: Afghan internally-displaced children stand outside their mud house at Shaidayee refugee camp in Herat province in February 2022. Photo credit: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images.)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Health Check

Why measles is sweeping through Afghanistan

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

About BBC World Service