Hello and welcome to Health Check from the BBC.
I'm Claudia Hammond here with our weekly roundup of what's happening in the world of health and how it might affect us.
In a moment, you might have heard about the new tax on contraception being introduced in China.
Will it have the desired effect of increasing the birth rate?
And since condoms are included, what consequences might there be for health?
and preventing asthma in children by vaccinating against a common respiratory virus.
And to help me today I have global health reporter Dawkus Wangira who's joining us from Nairobi in Kenya.
Welcome back, how are you?
I'm fine, happy new year.
And happy new year to you as well.
What do you have for us today?
We have a new study about the HPV vaccine and the herd immunity effect it has on women and girls who have not been vaccinated.
Yes, very interesting that one.
And what's going on in your body when you sit sweating in a sauna?
But we are starting with China and the rollout of what the government is calling fertility friendly incentives.
So, Dawkins, what exactly are these fertility friendly incentives?
So China has removed a three decade old tax exemption on contraceptive drugs and devices like condoms this year.
And the main intention is to give people more incentives to increase the country's birth rate or a woman's fertility rate.
So condoms and contraceptive pills now have a VAT or value added tax of 13% of the standard rate for most consumer goods.
And why have they rolled out these changes?