Health Check

The PEPFAR scheme was launched by George W Bush in 2003 to provide HIV and AIDS relief around the world. Officials say it’s since saved more than 25 million lives in 55 different countries. Now, though, its future could be under threat. With its funding due to expire at the end of September, some US Republicans are pushing for it not to be renewed because of alleged links to services providing abortions. Claudia Hammond is joined by professor of epidemiology at Boston University, Matt Fox, to look at what the outcome could mean for global AIDS provision. We also hear from scientists in Nigeria and the US about the groundbreaking discovery of a gene variant in people of African ancestry that increases the risk of Parkinson’s Disease. Claudia and Matt also look at a new study suggesting a minority of people who are sceptical of vaccines are less likely to get their dogs inoculated. We hear from researchers in Germany looking at whether getting people to exercise while undergoing chemotherapy could improv