Zimbabwe government takes on ‘friendship benches’

津巴布韦政府开展“友谊法庭”活动

Health Check

科技

2025-04-03

26 分钟
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‘Friendship benches’, a mental health intervention first piloted in Zimbabwe, are now being handed over to the government in that country. It is hoped that this will allow the program to become more widespread. Also on the show, a new device can convert brain signals to speach in nearly real time for those who have been paralysed, a medicine for rare genetic disorders could also make human blood deadly to mosquitos, and the US Food and Drug administration has approved a new first-in-class antibiotic for uncomplicated urinary tract infections. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Margaret Sessa-Hawkins and Katie Tomsett (Photo: Counsellor "Gogo" Shery Ziwakayi (R) sits on a bench in conversation with a client "Muzukuru" Choice Jiya (L) during a private counselling session at the Friendship Bench in Harare. 4 November, 2022. Credit: Jekesai Njikizana/AFP)
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单集文稿 ...

  • Hello and welcome to Health Check from the BBC.

  • I'm Claudia Hammond and I'm here for the next half an hour to dissect the latest medical news from around the world.

  • In today's show, Zimbabwe's famous friendship benches for mental health are to become part of the local health system.

  • And the first of a new class of antibiotics to be approved for treating urinary tract infections in 20 years.

  • And to help me, I have Matt Fox, who's Professor of Global Health and Epidemiology at Boston University in the US.

  • Now, there is lots to discuss with you today, but what else has caught your eye this week?

  • Yeah, we've got a story about a drug that may be able to make human blood toxic to mosquitoes.

  • Very intriguing.

  • And we are starting with something else really clever.

  • Have a listen to this.

  • Anne, who is 47, has been unable to move or speak for the last 18 years.

  • She is malving the words she wants to say and the computer is then turning her brain signals into text,

  • which it then reads out.

  • Oh, about one now.

  • I know he was good.

  • Now, what's amazing about that is the speed, because before this,

  • brain-computer interfaces waited for people to form an entire sentence before translating it into text,

  • which isn't ideal for a flowing conversation.

  • Especially if the sentence is a long one.

  • So, Matt, what do we know about Anne, the patient who was trying out this new device?