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Health Check

Health issues and medical breakthroughs from around the world.

Health Check: 50 Years Since First Heart Transplant

2017/12/06 GMT

50 Years Since First Heart Transplant

BBC World Service - Health Check, 50 Years Since First Heart Transplant

Donor organs shortage 50 years after 1st heart transplant

The first ever heart transplant took place in Cape Town in South Africa fifty years ago this week. That patient died after just 18 days – but today around five thousand people have heart transplants every year. A shortage of donor hearts means there is often a wait – and an artificial pump called an 
L-VAD can buy time. We hear from doctors and a patient about the advances in technology which have made the pumps easier to live with. 

The World Health Organization says that more than 200 million women – most in sub-Saharan Africa - are subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). The girls who have their labia and clitoris cut away often have lifelong health problems as a result. FGM was banned in The Gambia two years ago – where 3 out of 4 girls have been cut. Our reporter Irene Caselli travelled to west Africa and heard how attitudes are slowly changing. 

Exercise helps to keep us healthy.  But thinking that we do less than our friends can have a negative impact - and even shorten our lives.  The American study analysed 21 years’ worth of data and could influence public health campaigns aimed at making us more active. 


(Photo: Getty Images)

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