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How can an HIV positive woman give birth to a healthy baby? With proper medical care and antiretroviral therapy, a safe pregnancy is possible — as Vivian from Uganda shows. Plus: What helps against shingles?
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00:06HIV, the virus that can lead to AIDS, was discovered more than 40 years ago.
00:11Since then, over 91 million people have been infected.
00:16Today, around 40 million people are living with HIV, more than two-thirds of them in Africa.
00:22But HIV is no longer a death sentence.
00:25With modern treatment, people can live almost normal lives, even have children.
00:32Programs like prevention of mother-to-child transmission help ensure that babies are born HIV-free.
00:39Living with or after a viral infection, that's our topic this time on In Good Shape.
01:01There is a virus that is often spoken about with fear, stigma and shame.
01:07I'm talking about HIV.
01:09Despite advancements in science and available treatment options, for many women, especially
01:14those who are hoping to become mothers, the diagnosis can feel like a death sentence.
01:20Yet, in reality, it is not.
01:25Today, I'm in Kampala, Uganda, to meet Alice, who once feared motherhood because of her
01:30HIV status.
01:31From the things that we hear about people living with the virus, it's like they have no life.
01:41Hi, Vivian.
01:42It's a pleasure to have you on our show.
01:45Let's get right into it because I want to hear more of your story.
01:49How did you learn that you are living with HIV?
01:51How did you process that news?
01:54Firstly, it was not easy to take in.
01:57It was very shocking because I think I froze in a death moment for some time.
02:05It was very, I should say, maybe life-changing because actually I thought there's so many
02:11things that I had heard previously about people that are living with HIV, inclusive of the
02:16fact that they cannot have babies.
02:18So, I thought, now, how am I going to have babies with this status?
02:25How am I going to live life?
02:26I had just started my university.
02:29I thought, now, why go to school?
02:32So, it was so many things in there that were not really nice.
02:37Oh, I'm sorry.
02:38I'm sorry.
02:39As you were now getting this very shocking news, is there anything that helped you navigate?
02:43Behind closed doors, I was always crying.
02:46I think I cried for two straight weeks with a very thankful heart.
02:50I appreciate my mom so much because she was not like other parents that I've had.
02:56So, just to help me get through it, she told me, I don't even have to think about it like
03:01life was normal.
03:02I would still leave.
03:04I just had to start my medication.
03:05And she promised to take me to the hospital the next day.
03:08A year on my medication, I met someone.
03:13So, when we went to do a test, he was found negative and I was positive.
03:18So, this guy just said, if we've been together for four months and I'm not infected, then maybe
03:25there is a way we could leave.
03:27Some facts about HIV suppression are antiretroviral treatment prevents HIV from making copies of
03:35itself.
03:35Once treatment is started, the virus becomes undetectable in six months or less.
03:41Research supports the people with HIV to involve their partners in their treatment.
03:47If treatment is discontinued for any reason, the virus begins to multiply and can be detected
03:53in the blood again.
03:55Tell us about the journey of being on medication and being pregnant.
03:59Was there any additional treatment that was added?
04:02They actually advise us to seek a doctor's advice on every step of the way.
04:09While you're planning to get pregnant, you go and ask the doctor.
04:13So, they check, see if your viral load is okay to have the baby without the baby being infected
04:21from within the stomach.
04:23When the baby is about to be delivered on the last appointment, they gave me the Nivirapine
04:30syrup for the baby to be given so the baby is not infected while breastfeeding.
04:36So, you received quite an honourable title.
04:39Maybe you can share with us what that was all about.
04:42After a good experience of working with young people at the hospital, there was this opportunity
04:49to contest as Miss Y+.
04:51It's a beauty pageant for people living with HIV.
04:56It's an empowering campaign to give us energies as young people living with HIV to live better
05:05lives and also to stand against stigma and discrimination within the society.
05:09So, let's take a question from the DW Africa Facebook community.
05:14Joyce Sungani from Blantia Malawi asks,
05:17How is it possible for HIV positive mom not to transmit HIV to her baby through breastfeeding?
05:24Well, this is very possible through a combination of antiretrovirals as well as safe breastfeeding practices.
05:31I must emphasise that U equals U, meaning undetectable means untransmittable.
05:39Thank you so much, Vivian, for sharing your inspiring story with us.
05:43I want you to know that HIV is not a death sentence.
05:48With early treatment and with proper treatment, you can live a full life and even have a family
05:55with HIV negative children, just like Vivian.
06:00Once HIV enters the body, it stays for life and many other viruses remain with us long term as well.
06:07Some spread incredibly easily, even through droplets in the air.
06:12One of them is the varicella zoster virus.
06:16Many of us had chickenpox as children, but the virus never truly disappears.
06:21Decades later, it can wake up again as herpes zoster, better known as shingles.
06:28And that's exactly what happened to Anja.
06:35A short time ago, Anja Uwe noticed a rash on her shoulder and upper back.
06:43You think when something like that shows up, you just put a cream on it and it will go away.
06:49But then, in the evening, the pain got really intense, almost impossible to describe.
06:56A kind of pressure pain, burning, stabbing, and not even where the rash was.
07:03The rash was more here in the arm area, but the pain was above that.
07:11She took a painkiller.
07:13When that didn't help, another one and another.
07:16Her husband, Andreas Petzoldt, became concerned.
07:19He'd never seen his wife need this many painkillers before.
07:27The pain she had was obviously so unbearable
07:30that at some point the dots joined together in my head that maybe it was shingles.
07:37Andreas usually works in numbers and finance,
07:40but in this case his suspicion was correct.
07:43Shingles was confirmed by the doctor.
07:46Also known as herpes zoster, it's caused by the varicella zoster virus,
07:51the same one that causes chickenpox.
07:55Shingles is something that can show up after you've had chickenpox.
07:58The virus stays in the body after childhood.
08:01It lies dormant in the nerve tissues near the spinal cord and brain.
08:06Decades later, it can reactivate and travel along the nerves to the skin.
08:11That's when painful blisters appear, along with intense nerve pain.
08:16Pain that Andreas never wants to experience himself,
08:20so he's getting vaccinated.
08:22The couple have come to the doctor together.
08:31Their family doctor is also keeping an eye on Anja Ua.
08:36You had a nasty case of herpes zoster.
08:39Because you suffered so much, I'd like to check it again today.
08:45She'd also like to get vaccinated.
08:47But because she had shingles recently, she has to wait several months.
08:53It was on the left, wasn't it?
08:55I don't see anything.
08:58That's good.
08:59Sometimes it can leave quite significant scarring.
09:03The blisters never opened.
09:06I think maybe that helped.
09:09They didn't open, so no fluid came out.
09:14Today, Andreas is getting his second dose of the vaccine.
09:18You need two doses, spaced two to six months apart, for full protection.
09:25But the vaccine has another surprising effect.
09:28Studies have shown that it also helps protect against dementia.
09:35When we look at it across a population,
09:38we see that people who get vaccinated against shingles
09:41are less likely to get dementia.
09:44And when researchers adjust for all other factors that might play a role,
09:48we still see a certain protective effect from the vaccine.
09:53For Anja, that's one more reason to get vaccinated as soon as she can.
10:00The best virus protection is still vaccinations,
10:04washing your hands and wearing a mask.
10:06Most viruses enter through the nose,
10:09settle in the mucous membranes and begin multiplying.
10:15Usually, our immune system clears them without much trouble,
10:19but it needs rest and plenty of fluids.
10:22A common cold is often gone after about a week.
10:25But influenza, real flu, is more serious.
10:29If you ignore it or jump back into exercise and daily life too soon,
10:34you can overload your body, especially your heart.
10:38In the worst case, that can lead to a dangerous inflammation of the heart muscle.
10:46Fever, cough, sore throat.
10:49In December 2025 alone, around 7.2 million people in Germany had a cold,
10:54according to the Robert Koch Institute.
10:57Most of the time, a cold is harmless,
10:59but some symptoms do need a closer look,
11:01says family doctor Leopold Rupp.
11:08Does it feel like a typical cold, runny nose, sore throat,
11:12maybe a slight fever that gets better after a few days?
11:16Or do you feel much worse than usual?
11:19Maybe symptoms like shortness of breath,
11:22your heart skipping beats,
11:23or pressure in the chest,
11:25maybe during physical activity?
11:28Those are warning signs that could indicate a heart issue
11:31that needs to be thoroughly checked by a doctor.
11:36Since his diagnosis, 28-year-old Fulke Mayhoff
11:40has only been allowed to move very slowly.
11:43His heart rate must not go above 110.
11:50It's actually really hard to take it easy,
11:53especially when you live alone.
11:55Just going up the stairs by myself,
11:57sometimes afterwards I was completely wiped out.
12:01Especially in the first few days,
12:02the stairs were my final boss.
12:06The symptoms began two months ago.
12:09He felt drained, had joint pain.
12:11He thought it was probably some sort of infection.
12:19I'd had headaches all weekend.
12:22And by Monday, I also started having chest pain.
12:29He went straight to his doctor.
12:32She took a blood sample and ran an ECG.
12:40The ECG on that first day
12:42didn't really show anything unusual.
12:45But on the second day,
12:46I went back because the chest pain was so bad
12:48it woke me up and I couldn't really rest anymore.
12:50She did another ECG and that one was abnormal.
12:56His doctor was concerned and sent him straight to the hospital.
12:59She suspected myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle,
13:04often the result of not fully recovering from an infection.
13:09Cardiologist Dirk Frank sees lots of cases like this.
13:13He examined Volker thoroughly with another ECG,
13:17an ultrasound and he used another special diagnostic tool.
13:24Today, the most important tool we have in this situation is cardiac MRI,
13:29a magnetic resonance scan of the heart,
13:32which can very reliably show areas of inflammation in the heart muscle.
13:38Volker Mayhoff was officially diagnosed with myocarditis.
13:42The cause is usually a virus that reaches the heart through the bloodstream
13:46and triggers the inflammation.
13:48And in many cases, that happens because the initial viral infection wasn't fully cured.
13:55Myocarditis can be dangerous.
13:59If you don't take it easy, and you exercise while the heart muscle is actively inflamed,
14:04you can develop life-threatening heart rhythm disturbances.
14:11And those can lead all the way to sudden cardiac arrest, to put it very bluntly.
14:20The problem is that myocarditis often goes unnoticed.
14:29Myocarditis is in general a rare disease, but still underdiagnosed,
14:33because it often develops with almost no symptoms.
14:36Many people don't even realise they have inflammation of the heart muscle.
14:43Who it affects often seems random.
14:46Researchers still don't know why one person develops myocarditis and another doesn't.
14:51All the more reason to truly recover from a cold.
14:54But what exactly does fully recover mean?
15:00It depends on the virus.
15:03Real flu, an influenza infection, can take weeks to get over, meaning weeks of rest.
15:09But with the more common cold viruses, you may feel much better after five to seven days,
15:13so you can slowly start exercising again.
15:20Any time you have a fever, you should rest.
15:23And even afterwards, if you still feel tired, that's a clear sign that you need to take it easy.
15:30But if the heart is already affected, as in Volker's case, major lifestyle changes are needed.
15:43Typically, we advise at least three months, often six months, of rest and no exercise.
15:51The good news is that many of these myocarditis cases heal, and most patients recover without major long-term consequences.
16:01Myocarditis can affect anyone, but younger men between 30 and 45 are more likely to develop it.
16:14Volker now plans to start a rehab programme to fully recover.
16:18He has big plans for the future.
16:21I actually wrote myself a little bucket list, especially because my father passed away recently, also from a heart issue.
16:29It does make you think.
16:33Now Volker is paying much closer attention to his health, and he wants to recover properly so that his myocarditis
16:40doesn't leave any long-term damage.
16:45Cold viruses thrive all over the world. In tropical humidity and in dry, dusty regions.
16:54But can we strengthen our immune system against them?
16:58In many cultures, heat is seen as a key remedy for cold symptoms.
17:03For example, hot drinks like ginger tea or mint tea, two of the world's most popular home remedies.
17:12In North Africa, many people rely on steam baths in the hammam, while Northern Europe has a long sauna tradition.
17:19But is there any scientific evidence that heat really helps?
17:24To find out, we're heading inside a sauna in southern Germany.
17:29Set against castle ruins and fed with thermal water reaching 38 degrees Celsius, the Alpthermen in Bad Urrach, southern Germany,
17:38is a real draw.
17:39The spa also features a large sauna area, where saunamaster Peter Hess uses special essential oils for the steam infusions,
17:47designed to relax and energize.
17:55Waving the towel helps spread the heat and the scent evenly through the sauna, so every guest can feel it.
18:06And soon enough, people start to sweat.
18:09Our body's own heating and cooling system, our thermoregulation, constantly tries to keep our core temperature between around 36.5
18:18and 37.4 degrees Celsius.
18:22In the sauna, the high ambient temperature pushes that core temperature upward.
18:28The body responds. To release heat, the blood vessels widen, especially those in the skin.
18:36Blood flow increases, the heart pumps faster and harder.
18:45We sweat to cool ourselves. Even so, our core temperature can still rise by about 1.5 degrees.
18:54It's around 85 degrees in the sauna right now, and guests are feeling the heat.
19:02My body is in full sweat mode. I love sitting right at the top. I feel really invigorated up here.
19:12I'm soaked with sweat, and I can feel the heat working its way inside.
19:19The body loses up to half a litre of fluid during a sauna session.
19:22The increased blood flow to the skin often leaves people looking fresh and rosy.
19:29Inside the sauna, the blood vessels expand. During the cool-down, they contract again.
19:36Mark Eislechner comes to the Alptermen regularly with his son Johannes.
19:41It's a real kick for the body. It feels great.
19:46When you get out of the water afterwards, it feels great. It tingles in a good way.
19:52Switching between hot and cold is a real workout for the blood vessels, says Dr. Reiner Stanger.
19:58He's taken a close look at the scientific studies on the health effects.
20:04We train the ability of our blood vessels to widen and narrow, what we call vascular elasticity.
20:11That means the maximum dilation, something that may decrease over time without training, can improve again.
20:20But what does that mean for overall health? A long-term study investigated this.
20:27Researchers observed a group of Finnish sauna users over almost 15 years, a total of 1,628 men and women.
20:35Depending on how often they used the sauna, participants were placed in groups.
20:40Once a week, two to three times, or four to seven times.
20:45The result? The more often people went to the sauna, the lower their risk of having a stroke.
20:55Austrian epidemiologist Peter Willeit was involved in the research.
21:00In the 1980s, at the start of the study, only men were included.
21:07Researchers examined how sauna frequency affected their cardiovascular mortality.
21:16This study showed that men who went to the sauna more frequently had a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular
21:23disease.
21:26For example, compared to men who went once a week, those who went four to seven times a week had
21:33a 70% lower relative risk.
21:36Which is significant.
21:42All study participants were healthy at the start, and lifestyle factors like physical activity, BMI and alcohol consumption were taken
21:50into account.
21:52So how do Peter Willeit and his Finnish colleagues explain the findings?
21:57Studies involving both men and women show that blood pressure drops by about 5 to 10% shortly after sauna
22:03use.
22:04In the long-term study with male participants, frequent sauna use was linked to a lower risk of developing high
22:10blood pressure.
22:14Another factor is improved vascular elasticity.
22:20And beyond effects on the circulatory system, several studies also show improvements in inflammation markers.
22:32So regular sauna use has positive effects on the cardiovascular system.
22:38Mark Eislechner has been going to the sauna at least once a week for 20 years, and he notices another
22:44benefit.
22:46I don't get sick as often as I used to.
22:50I might catch a cold now and then, but it only lasts three or four days at most.
22:56Studies back that up too.
22:58Sauna use also benefits the immune system.
23:05You see that regular sauna use reduces the number of infections in healthy people.
23:12For example, from three or four seasonal infections down to one or two.
23:20So a trip to the sauna is good for the whole body, especially when combined with exercise.
23:26That's shown by another study led by Professor Willeit and fellow researchers.
23:33In a clinical trial, 47 participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups.
23:40One group did an exercise program three times a week.
23:44The second group did the same workout, but also spent 15 minutes in the sauna afterwards.
23:50The third group did neither exercise nor regular sauna sessions.
23:59After eight weeks, we measured a number of health markers.
24:05We found that the group combining exercise with sauna use had better cardiovascular and respiratory fitness.
24:14And lower blood pressure.
24:22The sauna isn't recommended if you have an acute illness, especially an infection.
24:28Or if you have a serious heart condition.
24:31The cardiovascular strain in a finished sauna is comparable to about 75 watts on a cardiac stress test.
24:38Meaning if you can manage a few minutes at that level, you can generally use a sauna.
24:44People prone to swelling, lymphatic or venous edema should be cautious.
24:49If unsure, it's best to get medical advice.
24:53Ideally from specialists in physical and rehabilitative medicine.
24:58And for first timers, start gently.
25:06The basic rule is don't be too ambitious at first.
25:10It's like getting into exercise.
25:12Take small steps.
25:14I always recommend choosing a facility that has low temperature saunas and starting there.
25:20Slowly increasing the time.
25:26Studies show that spending more than 11 minutes in the sauna increases the health benefits.
25:31But because sauna sessions challenge the body, the rest period afterwards is especially important.
25:37And always drink plenty of water.
25:40When done right, the sauna isn't just good for physical health.
25:44It's pure relaxation.
25:46You can lie down, stretch out.
25:48It's warm and cosy, especially in winter.
25:54We hope you had a nice relaxing time watching In Good Shape.
25:58See you next time. Bye for now.
26:00Bye for now.
26:01Bye for now.
26:05Bye for now.
26:08Bye for now.
26:08You
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