The risky use of skin lightening in children

儿童使用美白产品的风险

Health Check

2025-12-04

26 分钟
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单集简介 ...

New research shows that 20% of children under 5 years old in Nigeria have been exposed to skin lightening products; even by parents who know the risks associated with the products. Claudia speaks to Aisha, a mother, to understand why skin lightening can seem appealing, and to dermatologist Atinuke Ajani from Ile-Ife, Nigeria, who explains the growing prevalence of this trend. Epidemiologist Matt Fox joins Claudia to explain the latest breakthrough in HIV immunotherapy treatment and what research is still needed to find a cure. Momentary lapses in attention when exhausted may be your brain’s way of catching up on sleep. Laura Lewis, who is Associate Professor of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, explains the latest findings in sleep deprivation neuroscience. Claudia and Matt discuss a recent finding that medical research published by women is less likely to be retracted and the simple step that airlines could take to be better prepared for the medical emergency that causes 86% of in-flight mortalities. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producers: Helena Selby and Georgia Christie
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单集文稿 ...

  • Hello and welcome to Health Check from the BBC.

  • I'm Claudia Hammond.

  • Could immunotherapy hold the key to a cure for HIV one day?

  • More on that in a moment after the results of a new trial finds the virus was kept at low levels for many months in seven out of the ten people who took part.

  • And to help me today I have Matt Fox,

  • who is Professor of Epidemiology and Global Health at Boston University in the US.

  • How are you?

  • Doing well.

  • Now HIV research is very much your area so I'm keen to ask you all about these new findings in a moment but what else do you have for us?

  • Yeah, we have a story on how helpful it is to have defibrillators on airplanes.

  • Yeah, and interestingly, it turns out they're not on every plane already,

  • which is interesting, I thought.

  • And from Nigeria,

  • we'll hear about the social pressures to use skin-lightening creams on very young children despite the hazards to health.

  • So we are starting today with HIV and the latest attempts to find a cure as an alternative to lifelong treatment.

  • Coinciding with World AIDS Day earlier this week,

  • Nature has published a study showing it may be possible to control HIV without taking the usual treatment.

  • So what did they do in this trial?

  • Yeah, so this was a proof of concept study.

  • So this isn't a large randomized trial,