Chigozie Ohaka
Chigozie Ohaka reports on how health crises, costs and systems shape the lives of ordinary people, concentrating on outbreaks, access to care and the human consequences of policy and economic decisions. At Anewz, he covers health stories that link incidents such as the abduction of a six-year-old and her mother from an Ebola treatment facility to wider fears about renewed transmission, pressure on fragile services and public trust in health authorities.
Outbreaks, fear and fragile health facilities
In his reporting on the kidnapping of a six-year-old and her mother from an Ebola treatment centre, Ohaka treats the incident as both a security breach and a public health emergency rather than a crime story alone. He sets the abduction against the backdrop of an active Ebola response, spelling out how any break in isolation can fuel anxiety about further spread and undermine hard-won progress by medical teams. The framing highlights questions about how well staffed, protected and trusted such facilities are, and what happens when fear of disease, mistrust of institutions and local insecurity intersect. He foregrounds the experience of patients and families caught between infection risk and violence, showing how a single breach in the system reverberates through the community and complicates containment efforts.
The cost of care and access to essential drugs
Beyond outbreaks, Ohaka devotes sustained attention to the affordability of basic healthcare and medicines, especially in countries where most patients pay out of pocket. In a detailed piece on the rising cost of drugs in Nigeria, he follows patients who want to stay on treatment but struggle with prices that rise faster than their incomes, set against inflation above 30% and weak health insurance coverage. He shows how people with chronic conditions cut doses, abandon prescriptions or borrow to pay at the pharmacy, while doctors and pharmacists describe shortages, stockouts and the pressure to improvise. The reporting ties household stories to macro-economic data, making clear how inflation, currency pressures and underfunded insurance schemes translate into missed doses, delayed care and preventable complications. He often uses social and short-form video to extend these stories, capturing candid explanations from patients about why they skip insurance or rely on informal support instead of formal coverage.
Vaccines, prevention and public health campaigns
Ohaka also covers major public health interventions, with a focus on vaccines and prevention. In the BBC’s Africa Live coverage he contributes updates on the World Health Organization’s first recommended malaria vaccine, explaining how the programme targets hundreds of thousands of infants in high-burden countries and what that means for families in endemic regions. He situates the rollout within the long struggle to reduce malaria deaths, outlining how the new vaccine fits alongside bed nets, seasonal chemoprevention and other tools rather than presenting it as a silver bullet. His updates stress scale and logistics — how many children are expected to receive doses, how rollouts are phased and what early data show — while still anchoring the story in the perspective of those most at risk.
Emerging risks and digital storytelling
Ohaka’s health beat extends into adjacent issues such as illicit drug use and the harms that flow through online and street markets. In work highlighted around the illicit sale and use of nitrous oxide, he examines how a substance perceived by many young people as harmless can carry real health risks when misused, and how gaps in regulation and enforcement allow a grey market to flourish. He pairs this with an interest in cybercrime, youth culture and accountability, spending time with young people from several African countries to hear how they experience corruption, unemployment and weak services, including in health. His professional profile describes his role as a senior journalist and digital producer at the BBC, where he leads cross-platform storytelling and works on complex, multi-country pieces that combine video, text and interactive formats. He also writes and speaks about generative AI and media innovation, reflecting on how new tools can be used responsibly in newsrooms without losing the depth, verification and human focus that characterise his health reporting.
4 more health journalists.
Alex Storey
Alex Storey is a journalist at LBC whose work is driven by specific cases that test professional conduct and accountability in health and the public sector. He covers health as his main beat, focusing on the point where individual decisions by clinicians or officials meet public trust in institutions. His reporting is incident-first and case-led, using concrete episodes to show how rules, ethics and policy work in real life. Recent pieces include a disciplinary case where a nurse was struck off after linking a patient’s cancer to Covid jabs, and coverage of civil servants being “paid to play Grand Theft Auto” as “lived experience” training. Across these stories, he examines how professionals, regulators and officials explain their decisions, and what that reveals about trust, responsibility and the standards expected of people in positions of authority.
Alexandra Thompson
Alexandra Thompson is an assistant news editor focused on health who treats health claims as hypotheses to be tested rather than messages to be repeated. She works at New Scientist, combining editing with frontline reporting on ageing brains, cognitive health, chronic illness, contested treatments and infectious disease. Her beat centres on how neuroscience and psychology intersect with everyday health choices and on how scientific findings translate into real-world outcomes for people living with illness. She examines lifestyle advice, rehabilitation programmes and outbreak guidance against current evidence, clarifying risk without overstating it and giving space to controversy without sensationalising it. Alongside written news she appears in audio and video formats, bringing the same clear, news-driven approach to live discussions and helping shape the daily health agenda while keeping a tight focus on evidence and impact.
Alice Wilkinson
Alice Wilkinson investigates how everyday habits, products and routines shape sleep and long-term wellbeing, using test-driven health features to separate hype from real benefit. She holds a senior role on The Telegraph’s health features team, writing and shaping consumer-focused coverage that blends personal trial with clear expert evidence. Her core beat is sleep as a practical, solvable part of daily life, from detailed comparisons of magnesium supplements to service pieces on how sleeping position affects health over time. She treats supplements as a crowded, over-claimed market that demands careful testing and clear-eyed reporting. Alongside long-form features she writes weekly health desk dispatches on sleep, stress and concentration. Across her work she combines substantial self-testing, specialist insight and plain, unfussy prose to give readers measurable, realistic changes they can make.
Ally Head
Ally Head connects performance-focused fitness reporting with women’s health, sustainability and relationships, using her own endurance training and health history to stress-test trends against expert guidance. She is Senior Health, Sustainability and Relationships Editor at Marie Claire UK, where she shapes the health agenda across training, wellbeing and conscious living and writes and commissions news, topical features and SEO-led long-form pieces. A ten-time marathoner and Boston-qualifying runner, she focuses on structured, realistic training plans, strength and conditioning for women who run, and performance longevity. Her women’s health work centres on hormones, chronic conditions and fact versus fiction wellness claims. She also covers sustainability as conscious living and relationships, mental resilience and lifestyle features, favouring plain language, lived experience, specialist commentary and clear, repeatable routines. She has previously produced similar content for Women’s Health, Stylist, Glamour and Grazia.