01/11/2010

Available for over a year

You might have heard this week the news that if you’re a woman your ability to conceive in your 30s or 40s might be affected by your blood type. An American study has found that women with the most common blood group – Group O - have higher levels of a certain chemical called FSH which suggests they have fewer eggs left than the women with type A or B blood. The research was presented to the Conference of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. Fertility expert Professor Simon Fishel talks to Claudia Hammond. A decade ago telemedicine was the one of the big hopes for getting healthcare to the most remote parts of Africa. There were plans for 200 sites in South Africa alone, and yet a recent government review there found that only 32 are working. Claudia Hammond talks to Professor Maurice Mars from Cape Town. Next week experts in the field will be gathering in Washington to discuss the potential for mobile health in the future. Claudia Hammond talks to Dr Val Stevenson of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London and finds out how telemedicine is working there. She also talks to Professor Victor Patterson in Belfast about a project which links doctors with other doctors, so that specialist knowledge can be shared around the world. Today a vast immunisation campaign begins in Chad and Sudan and campaigns in another dozen countries were launched last week. Most children will be getting the new so-called bi-valent vaccine which protects against two types of polio. Just last week the results of an Indian trial came out showing that this vaccine is 30% more effective. So could we really be approaching the day when polio is eradicated? Rod Curtis from the World Health Organisation in Geneva talks to Claudia about how the situation is looking at the moment.