This is a must watch video presented by TED featuring the winner of one of the prestigious TED prizes, Mr. James Nachtwey. Nachtwey is one of the most famous war photographers in the world, having documented several of the most important recent conflicts of our time. In this video, however, Nachtwey focuses on one issue that has become his most pivotal- the fight against tuberculosis and the development of multi-drug resistant TB.
I worked in a large HIV/TB clinic and the infectious disease ward of a public government hospital in Kampala, Uganda where I saw several patients suffering from these illnesses, but the pictures that Nachtwey has taken were shocking even to me. Literal skeletons. This is a must watch video– it is one man’s global cry for support, awareness, research, and action. His photographs and the full scope of the movement against XDR-TB can be found here. I highly recommend it, both from the perspective of a future physician and a current photographer. Nachtwey is innovating a new field, one I would deem “health photography”, that has the potential to start major movements for global health.
Indeed American medicine of 1980 has little resemblance to that of today. In 1980 the pharmaceutical industry did not promote its products on television. It was also a time when medicines were often introduced in other nations before they were in the United States, in part because the FDA spent more time making sure they were safe before agreeing they could be sold. It was also a time when most medical research was done by academic or government scientists with few ties to the pharmaceutical industry.