This is my take on the medical and health issues of the day, especially those involving research and ethics
14:04 UK time, Monday, 24 October 2011
You are going to hear a lot about population in the coming week. That's because on 31st October, the United Nations Population Fund will announce that the number of people on the planet has reached seven billion.
Of course no one knows exactly how many people there are - we may have already passed seven billion - but the UN has picked the day as the best estimate.
18:16 UK time, Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Some much-anticipated results have come in from a major trial of a vaccine against malaria.
The RTS,S vaccine, developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), has been trialled in seven African countries. The first phase three results, published online in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that the vaccine cut the risk of malaria infection and several malaria - by about half.
15:50 UK time, Tuesday, 18 October 2011
It was the ruling which stem cell scientists had feared. The European Court of Justice has banned - on ethical grounds - the issuing of patents for embryonic stem cell research.
The ruling upholds an interim judgement I wrote about in April. The judgement is designed to prevent the commercial exploitation - via a patent - of discoveries which involve the destruction of human embryos. The ruling mentions "respect for human dignity".
01:55 UK time, Friday, 14 October 2011
It is the sort of news story that will have left many feeling queasy over their breakfast cereal - a study which suggests one in six mobile phones is contaminated with faecal matter.
Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London took nearly 400 samples from mobile phones and hands in 12 British cities.
21:41 UK time, Wednesday, 28 September 2011
On the face of it, the decision by a High Court judge in the case of M is no surprise - few would have expected a ruling to allow a patient with any level of consciousness and feeling to die.
But a closer inspection of the 76-page judgement shows that Mr Justice Baker did not find his decision a straightforward one.
21:02 UK time, Thursday, 22 September 2011
From the age of five Julia Hawkins has been losing her sight. She has Stargardt's disease, a form of macular degeneration.
Her central vision has almost entirely disappeared, leaving her with only peripheral vision.
16:16 UK time, Monday, 19 September 2011
Meeting twins Rital and Ritag Gaboura it was astonishing to think that just a month ago they were unable to look each other in the eyes.
After four complex operations they have been successfully separated with no apparent signs of any neurological damage from the procedure.
17:03 UK time, Thursday, 8 September 2011
When I reported last year about the urgent need for blood donors I received many comments from gay men that they would like to donate but were unable to.
Now the complete ban is being lifted. Until now, any man who had ever had sex with another man was barred for life from donation.
17:47 UK time, Friday, 2 September 2011
Salt generally gets a pretty bad press. Today it was bread manufacturers in the firing line, for high levels of salt in some loaves.
But behind the headlines, it's possible to see what's happening to salt levels in food as a success story.
14:59 UK time, Friday, 26 August 2011
The rising problem of global obesity was driven home to me recently in - of all places - Sierra Leone.
This is one of the world's poorest countries with among the highest rates of malnutrition and child mortality.
08:09 UK time, Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Beware any headline in a newspaper or blog that starts with a question.
Generally the answer to the question is no, and is a means for the writer to grab the reader's attention and then proceed to irritate them. I will try not to by giving my conclusion straight off - no, watching TV will not make you die younger.
03:48 UK time, Friday, 22 July 2011
It was one of the great comedy sketch moments from Not the Nine O'Clock News. Mel Smith is a scientist on a talk-show, sitting next to a gorilla (Rowan Atkinson in a costume) and begins explaining how he has taught him to speak.
Smith: "When I caught Gerald in '68 he was completely wild."
03:15 UK time, Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Who decides what is in the best interests of patients who are unable to speak for themselves?
In a landmark legal case which begins on Tuesday, a judge at the Court of Protection in London will be asked to decide whether a severely brain-damaged woman should be allowed to die.
00:10 UK time, Thursday, 14 July 2011
I can still remember as a small boy asking my mother to explain how a neighbour and family friend had met her death. My mum whispered that she thought it was - and here her voice dropped to a whisper - cancer.
The very word was so dreadful that it was to be spoken in hushed tones, rather like saying the name "Lord Voldemort" is taboo for most characters in the Harry Potter novels.
17:08 UK time, Thursday, 7 July 2011
I've held a few strange body parts in my hands over the years - all I should stress, in the line of work. They have ranged from mechanical heart pumps to hi-etch prosthetic limbs.
But none more life-like than the synthetic trachea manufactured by scientists from University College London. The team, lead by Professor Alex Seifalian, have patented a nanocomposite material which was used to create the first completely synthetic windpipe.
18:05 UK time, Monday, 4 July 2011
New data on late abortions is likely to re-kindle the debate on what constitutes reasonable grounds for a termination.
Whereas abortion on what is often called "social grounds" is legal up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, there is no time limit where "there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped."
17:07 UK time, Friday, 24 June 2011
I will never forget my visit to a coffin factory in Mississippi. Sales of over-size caskets were rising fast - no wonder in the US's fattest state. Some of the coffins were three feet (1m) wide - on the inside.
I heard dire warnings from doctors about obesity-related health problems, especially Type 2 diabetes. One warned me that if the upward trend in diabetes continued, it would eventually bankrupt the state health budget.
18:47 UK time, Tuesday, 14 June 2011
No-one would choose an industrial estate outside Zurich as the place to end their life. But that is exactly what some Britons are doing.
In Choosing to Die on BBC2, the author Sir Terry Pratchett went to Switzerland to witness the assisted suicide of a British man with motor neurone disease.
15:30 UK time, Monday, 13 June 2011
So the money has been pledged and the delegates are heading home. GAVI wanted $3.7bn and ended up with $4.3bn.
The Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates described it as an "incredible milestone". This from a man who today, as he has done repeatedly, put his money where his mouth is. The Gates Foundation donated an extra $1bn. He described vaccines as "magic" when he came and spoke to me.
22:40 UK time, Sunday, 12 June 2011
Dr Shona Johnston was on her morning ward round.
Originally from Shetland, her permanent job is working as a paediatrician at a hospital in Berkshire. But she has left behind her husband and home to work for a year at a children's hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The placement was organised by the charity VSO - Voluntary Service Overseas.
Fergus began working for the BBC in 1984 and has reported on health, science and medicine for nearly twenty years.
He has reported for the BBC from around the world on topics such as stem cells, obesity, HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, polio and swine flu.
Fergus has had all his genes sequenced, his heart, brain and other body parts scanned, as well as being vaccinated against bird flu for TV news reports.
He appeared in a BBC TV drama with Julie Walters. He didn’t win any awards for his acting, but has won several for his journalism.
Tom Feilden
Science correspondent, Today programme
Analysis of the scientific issues that are making headlines
Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent
UK and European space and the latest major science stories
Richard Black
Environment correspondent
What's happening to our ever-changing planet
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