51³Ô¹ÏÍø

In this edition: A new test to monitor treatment-resistant HIV, a book tracing the fight against infection, and how the NHS can make cheaper drugs.

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– We discuss the progress and shortcomings of the latest climate change conference and hear about worrying findings that algorithms designed to discover illegal images are easy to fool.

– As drug-resistant strains of HIV rise across Africa, we hear from Dr Catherine Kibirige, who has designed a new to measure viral load to help manage these new strains.

– We hear from author of a new book called , Dr John Tregoning, about the progress we have made in fighting infectious diseases so they are no longer the leading cause of death. In the book he uses examples from HIV and COVID-19, and meets some of the frontline’s more colourful characters.

You can also listen to an of this interview on 51³Ô¹ÏÍø's Soundcloud account.

– We meet Professor Karim Meeran, who argues the NHS should make its own generic medical drugs in response to ‘’, where private companies hike up the process of drugs. In , he suggests this would save the NHS millions of pounds.

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The podcast is presented by Gareth Mitchell, a lecturer on 51³Ô¹ÏÍø's MSc Science Communication course and the presenter of on the BBC World Service, with contributions from our roving reporters in the Communications and Public Affairs Division.