Public Health and USPHS by The National Library of Medicine

This film covers emergency plans necessary to cope with disaster situations. These animated public service announcements feature "four dangerous characters"-- ill-intentioned green figures representing four infectious diseases: diptheria, polio, lockjaw, and whooping cough. They search for susceptible individuals to infect, but are thwarted by the protection afforded their intended victims by immunization. Emmy Immunity is a pigtailed little girl who, at the end of each segment, emphasizes the importance of vaccinations.

Profiles a National Institutes of Health study of infectious diseases that can cause abnormal pregnancy outcomes in women. Outcomes include stillbirth, abortion, and birth defects. Fifty thousand pregnant women and their infants participated in the Collaborative Perinatal Research Project, a joint effort of several institutes at NIH. Blood is drawn regularly from mother and child and tested. The laboratory procedures and other workflows are shown and described in some detail.

This film details several methods of killing domestic rats, including various types of poison mixed into foods rats like, cleaning and repairing premises to discourage rat habitation, metal traps, and the elimination of rat harborages. Learn more about this film and search its transcript at NLM Digital Collections: http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9423674.

This film is a dramatization of the arrival and settling-in of a newly-minted nurse at a tuberculosis sanitarium. At first she is unsure of her skills, and worried that she will contract the disease from her patients. She freezes during an emergency situation, but sees how the experienced nurses handle it, and as she becomes more experienced and confident herself, her perspective changes and her abilities are sharpened. She challenges one depressed patient to fight for his health, and the gambit works.

This film features a middle-aged, experienced midwife named Mrs. Mary Cooley. Throughout the film, Mrs. Cooley helps two women, Ida and Marybell, throughout their pregnancies and deliveries. Ida, a mother of two, is very responsible and attends regular checkups, whereas Marybell confesses to have never seen a doctor and has had one miscarriage and one stillborn infant. Mrs. Cooley takes both women to the doctor for regular blood and urine tests, explains to them what they should eat to have healthy pregnancies, and helps get their homes ready.

This program presents a broad overview of the problem of overpopulation and the attempts underway in several countries to meet the challenge of curbing population growth. Support for such programs by the United Nations and through the United States Agency for International Development are briefly discussed. Each country's customs and religous views are considered in designing the best solutions to offer men and women. Countries profiled include El Salvador, the Philippines, Liberia, Tunisia, India, and Korea.

Dr. Andrew Morrow, Dr. Nina Braunwald and other physicans and researchers are featured in this film about the history of the prosthetic heart valve, complications encountered by inventors, and key leaps forward in the creation of an artificial valve. Dr. Charles Hufnagel's early invention of a plastic ball valve is described. A Teflon prosthesis developed in the 1950s is shown.The first complete replacement of the mitral valve was performed in 1960 at the National Heart Institute by Morrow and Braunwald, using a device made of polyurethane.

This program discusses and demonstrates the neurological examination of the newborn. The examination techniques and the standards used to distinguish normal from abnormal responses are the result of a collaborative project to study the neurological disorders of infancy and childhood at the National Institutes of Health. The program examines several different infants during the first week of life to illustrate both normal and abnormal responses to various neurological tests. The program discusses in considerable detail the criteria used to differentiate normal from abnormal responses.

This program presents filmed sequences of a group of twenty-nine villagers from Sahneh who had been attacked by a rabid wolf. Filmed sequences of one villager taken at various times during his disease, are presented to illustrate the clinical course and manifestations of the disease in this man. The man is seen after he is bitten but before he manifests symptoms overtly, the third day of his disease, and the fifth day of the disease. Scenes taken as the patient dies are also included. A doctor is also shown as he apparently examined the man to verify that death has occurred.

This film deals with the action an individual can take to protect himself in the event of an atomic attack which may come with or without warning. This 1951 Federal Civil Defense Administration film warns of the dangers posed by atomic bombs, which wound people in three ways: by blast, heat, and radioactivity. Footage of the devastation caused in Japan at the end of World War II and its aftermath illustrates these points.