Science

Coming Home (National Tuberculosis Assn, 1950)

Jack Burns is diagnosed with tuberculosis and must leave his family to spend months in the hospital. Jack worries how his wife will manage financially, and how the children will handle the reality that their father is ill and not present for a long period. He also wonders how his transition back to regular life will play out. The film shows that Jack's time convalescing was well worth it. His health is restored, and he learns new skills so that he can take a less physically demanding job when he returns to work. His wife handles the family budget well, and the family keeps its home.

Behind the Shadows (National Tuberculosis Association, 1937)

The doctor in this film tells a story to a group of young people about the cause, spread, and treatment of tuberculosis. Shots include tubercle bacilli. Produced by the National Tuberculosis Association. Learn more about this film and search its transcript at NLM Digital Collections: http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/870076A. Learn more about the National Library of Medicine's historical audiovisuals program at: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/collections/films

Filariasis in British Guiana (US Agency for International Development, 1963)

Modernizing the Tropics, Making a New Nation, with Public Health Filariasis, a parasitic disease, is caused by microscopic (roundworms. Spread from person to person by mosquito bite, the worms can cause elephantiasis and other serious conditions. Filariasis in British Guiana was part of a broad campaign to prevent and treat the disease. It was released in 1963, a time when the United States and Soviet Union were competing for the allegiance of "the Third World." British Guiana was heading toward independence, and the U.S.

The Mississippi Valley Disease (University of Kansas, 1956)

In this film, a host and two doctors examine histoplasmosis, also called the Mississippi Valley disease. The host first shows a little girl who has been hospitalized for months and has an enlarged spleen and liver due to histoplasmosis, and explains that she is in the company of 30 million others suffering from the disease. He then introduces a doctor who is a leading authority on histoplasmosis, who explains that around 80 percent of all people living in the Mississippi Valley area have had the disease at some point in their lives.

Multiple Screening (Communication Materials Center, 1950)

This film promotes the concept of multiple screening. The narrator first explains that Americans in the 1800s had many health concerns, but modern medicine has alleviated many problems and life expectancy has risen. Still, blood pressure, obesity, heart and kidney problems, tuberculosis, and syphilis are persistent problems. Early detection can fix them. The narrator introduces the concept of multiple screening, in which blood and urine samples, x-rays, and other testing methods can be used to screen for several different diseases rather than just one.

Immunization against Infectious Diseases (University of Michigan, 1966)

The advantages of immunization against disease, rather than its treatment with antibiotics, are presented. The diseases against which immunizations have been developed are listed. Reported cases of the following diseases for the years 1950 to 1965 are shown on charts and United States maps: diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, smallpox, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, scarlet fever and other streptococcal diseases, poliomyelitis, measles, hepatitis, mumps, brucellosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, rabies in man, cholera, plague, typhus, and yellow fever.

Reconnaissance for Yellow Fever in the Nuba Mtns, Southern Sudan 1954 (Telford Work, 2006)

An Epidemiological Expedition into the Interior of Africa In the early 1950s Dr. Telford H. Work and Dr. Richard Moreland Taylor traveled to the Sudan to study an outbreak of yellow fever. Flying to Khartoum, they took their equipment by train to El Obeid, and by jeep to the Nuba Mountains (spanning the southern part of the present-day post-partition Sudan and the northern part of South Sudan). Accompanied by Dr.

They Do Come Back (National Tuberculosis Association, 1940)

Young man of "Everytown" has an oral hemorrhage which subsequent examination and tests show was caused by tuberculosis. He goes to sanitarium for treatment and extensive bed rest. Epidemiological investigation reveals source of infection was lip contact with his fiancée. The importance of occupational therapy and aptitude tests is demonstrated during the patient's recovery and rehabilitation. Scenes include: sputum and blood samples, enlarged tubercle bacilli, tuberculin test, X-ray, pneumothorax surgery, and patient drafting in occupational therapy.