The global scale of corruption in healthcare

A former health minister from Peru has called corruption in healthcare 'a cancer' which leads to the deaths of 140,000 children every year. Dr Patty Garcia is in London for the Academy of Medical Sciences International Health Lecture. She has seen x-ray machines and scanners in public hospitals deliberately broken so that people would pay for tests in nearby private clinics. She is calling for more research into the best ways to stop corruption – as the money saved could fund universal healthcare.

Medical advances mean that people living with HIV won’t pass the virus onto a sexual partner if their viral load is kept to an 'undetectable' level. But a series in the journal The Lancet is highlighting how attitudes have not always kept up. The stigma felt by HIV+ people can wreck lives. Swedish clinical professor in global infectious disease epidemiology Anna Mia Ekström explains how one of her HIV+ patients wished they had cancer instead – so they could tell their mother and get support.

In Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, HIV youth activists from 25 countries gathered recently to improve their leadership skills in order to fight stigma and isolation. Angela Robson went along to the Spark meeting – to talk to young people living with HIV from places like India, Turkey and Zimbabwe.

(Photo: Male doctor with money in uniform pocket. Credit: Ivan Balvan/Getty Images.)

Health Check was presented by Claudia Hammond

Producer: Paula McGrath