15/02/2010

Available for over a year

Since 2007 outbreaks of a disease that spreads from goats to humans have been escalating in the Netherlands. In 2009 more than 2,300 people were affected and six people died. Q fever is caused by the bacterium Coxiella Burnetti and is spread by goats. While Q Fever doesn’t cause many symptoms in goats, in people symptoms can include fever, pneumonia, chronic fatigue and a severe headache behind the eyes. Normally the bacteria spread fastest at this time of year, after goats have just given birth. So what measures have the authorities taken to prevent a further outbreak? Claudia Hammond talks to Roel Coutinho, Director of the Centre for Infectious Disease Control in the Netherlands. Claudia also talks to Professor Helen Christensen Director of the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University about her research which shows that pregnant women have no more memory lapses than non pregnant women, contrary to popular myth. Also, what’s the difference between mind and the brain? Claudia discusses this with Adam Zeman Professor of Cognitive and Behavioural Neurology at Peninsula Medical School in Exeter. The traditional hospital gown has been hated by patients for decades, but now some hospitals are introducing more dignified, wraparound gowns. Claudia talks to head of the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing at Midwifery at Kings College London, Professor Anne Marie Rafferty about the need for a new style of hospital gown.