logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2024
27m 15s

Women on the frontline in the fight agai...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Ella Al-Shamahi meets two women on the frontline in the fight against malaria.

Dr Ify Aniebo is from Nigeria, the country worst hit by malaria. She is an Associate professor with the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases, where she works to improve the country's response to drug resistance and malarial transmission.

Dr Mehreen Datoo is a clinical lecturer in Infectious Diseases at the University of Oxford and she’s on the team that developed the R21/Matrix-M, the WHO approved vaccine that will be rolled out across Africa in 2024.

Produced by Alice Gioia, Emily Naylor and Jane Thurlow.

(Image: (L) Dr Mehreen Datoo, courtesy of Dr Mehreen Datoo. (R) Dr Ify Aniebo, courtesy Dr Ify Aniebo.)

Up next
Jan 26
Taking a fresh look at women’s designer shoes
Datshiane Navanayagam talks to two women who changed paths to design and manufacture their own shoes in their own countries. A former environmental engineer in India and former interior designer from Egypt explain how they found their passion.Anita Soundar was a chemical engineer ... Show More
26m 32s
Jan 19
The female game-makers
How do video and board games get from idea to reality? Ella Al-Shamahi talks to two women who invent, tweak and perfect the games that so many of us love to play.Sigurlína Ingvarsdóttir from Iceland has produced some of the world’s biggest video game titles, including FIFA and St ... Show More
26m 27s
Jan 12
Women changing the art space
Two women with art galleries in Switzerland, London, Nigeria and the US talk about discovering and promoting new artists, building relationships with art collectors and the importance of supporting women in the art world.Maria Varnava is Greek Cypriot and grew up in Lagos. She fo ... Show More
26m 27s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2023
What will it take for Africa to combat malaria?
In today’s podcast, Alan Kasujja sits down with award-winning South African health practitioner professor Lucille Blumberg. She explains why she thinks she was recognized for her efforts in fighting malaria. She also tells our presenter why thousands of people across the African ... Show More
15m 9s
Jan 2022
The Evidence: Africa, the pandemic and healthcare independence
In a special edition of The Evidence, Claudia Hammond and her panel of experts focus on Africa, on how the more than fifty countries on the continent, home to 1.3 billion people and the most youthful population in the world, have fared, two years into the pandemic.African scienti ... Show More
50m 17s
Aug 2021
Africa’s vaccine ambitions
Africa is a continent of 1.3 billion people, but makes less than 1% of the lifesaving vaccines it needs. The continent’s 54 nations are almost entirely dependent on agencies like Unicef and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, for these essential pharmaceuticals. But the pandemic of 2020 ... Show More
27m 42s
May 2021
Lifting the burden of malaria
A new vaccine could help eliminate the disease. What would that mean for African economies?Manuela Saragosa speaks to the man who led the team behind the new vaccine, which has demonstrated a startling 77% effectiveness in recent drug trials. Adrian Hill of Oxford University's Je ... Show More
18m 29s
Apr 2023
Malaria vaccines approved first in West Africa
More than a quarter of the world’s malaria cases happen in Nigeria according to the World Health Organisation. This week the country became the second, after Ghana to provisionally approve the use of malaria vaccine R21. Professor Matt Fox explains why scientists have called the ... Show More
26m 35s
May 2021
The Evidence: Sharing Vaccines – what’s gone wrong?
The lofty ambition of the global community was that across the globe, those with the highest risk of losing their lives to this virus should be vaccinated first. With 99% of deaths coming in the over fifties, the plan was that everybody in this age group should be inoculated.But ... Show More
50m 28s
Feb 2022
Why measles is sweeping through Afghanistan
This week on Health Check, polio makes an unwelcome return to the African continent and measles cases are soaring among children in Afghanistan. We hear from WHO spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris and Médecins Sans Frontières’ Sarah Vuylsteke and Maxime Pirard who are based at Herat ... Show More
38m 52s
Nov 2021
Dr. Mukwege: The Power of Women
<p>Oprah talks to Nobel Peace Prize winner and author of The Power of Women, Dr. Denis Mukwege. Dr. Mukwege has dedicated his life to caring for the survivors of rape and sexual violence in his home country, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Dr. Mukwege has operated on more than ... Show More
1h 4m
Feb 2022
The house that fights malaria
Malaria kills more than half a million people per year. We meet the innovators who are using buildings, lights, genes and vaccines to fight the mosquito-borne disease. In Ghana, a young woman has turned her school project into a business, selling lights that electrocute mosquitos ... Show More
24m 11s