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The Covid-19 pandemic is threatening to undermine 20 years of progress in improving women’s reproductive health and rights around the world, according to the Guttmacher Institute in New York. The Institute’s president Herminia Palacio explains the threats to Claudia Hammond, and also the benefits to female and child health of expanding the provision of modern contraception methods to the millions of women whose needs are currently not met.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ News Global Health Correspondent Naomi Grimley updates Claudia on the latest figures and developments in the coronavirus pandemic.

Marijke Peters reports on the London medical student Malone Mukwende who is campaigning to improve the UK medical profession’s knowledge and appreciation of how different conditions manifest differently between different ethnic groups. It began when he found that his medical text books only described the appearance of skin diseases on white skin.

Claudia’s guest this week is Boston University epidemiologist Professor Matthew Fox who talks about a rare epidemiological study on the risks of catching the coronavirus on flights, how the pandemic may undermine malaria control in sub Saharan Africa and a drug that may prevent influenza spreading in families.

Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker
Editor: Deborah Cohen

(Picture: A doctor shows women an IUD while educating them about their reproductive health and family planning options at a mobile clinic in Besakoa, Madagascar. Photo credit: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post/Getty Images.)