Opening
visual is a sick ward. Coughing and other ambient sounds are
heard under. Screen cuts to close ups of faces of the sick with each quick-cut
comment below, quotes from frantic citizens,
a doctor and a newscaster. Narrator quickly follows.
(Note
that any visual that can be readily fixed in time steals our "surprise,"
so photo or photos, although from the era of TB, should be as "timeless"
as possible.)
"First the
fever, and the cough, and then they just start spitting up blood"
"In my experience,
I've never seen anything else like it. Young, otherwise healthy people are
dying. And there seems to be nothing I can do."
"Someone
with the disease walks into a store, and he can infect everyone in there."
"Scientists
have determined that the so-called white plague is caused by a previously
unknown bacillus. The organism's thick, waxy shell makes it impervious to
any known drug and..."
Newscaster voice fades under
slow, sad music. As narrator begins, a pulp science fiction paperback book
(in animation) fills the screen. It has a title such as "The Plague That
Ate Mankind." At the appropriate time, it dissolves into a real newspaper
from the period, with dramatic but historically accurate headline and subhead
such as "Fifty Million Infected in New York! Can Science Stop TB?"
A doomsday scenario from
a bestselling science fiction novel? Unfortunately, the comments are all
too real, based on events in the U.S. and Europe within this century. The
white plague, also called tuberculosis, has been a scourge since
antiquity, and, by the mid-19th century was killing one in every seven people.
Millions were dying every year--most of them productive adults in the prime
of their lives. To many, it did seem like the end of civilization was at
hand.
Rising music enters. Screen
fills with montage of TB-era research-related shots--laboratories, test tubes,
scientists scanning x-rays, and so on.
Mankind won its first major
battle with TB in 1882, when Robert Koch, through innovative research techniques,
isolated the infectious organism tubercle bacilli. For the next several decades,
researchers at facilities around the world, working together and working
separately, began looking for a way to destroy
the germ--before it destroyed us.
(Animation)
Petri dish with microbes, hand enters with medicine dropper. Drop falls and
puff of smoke emerges from dish.
Several times, researchers
felt triumph as they watched newly discovered drugs destroy the bacilli in
the laboratory, only to taste disappointment as their cures proved too toxic
for their animal subjects.
(Animation continues) An obviously
different hand and dropper, this drop falls with no effect.
Penicillin, the newly discovered
miracle drug which was curing such scourges as pneumonia and scarlet fever,
had no impact on the bacilli.
Historical photo of solitary
researcher deep in study. Perhaps soundtrack includes sounds of bombs falling.
But, even with the expense and distraction of two world wars, research continued,
led by brilliant scientists in many countries, most funded by the leading
pharmaceutical companies of the day. Mankind seemed to realize that losing
its war with TB could have even more dire consequences.
Split screen animation, with
microscopes on either side. One contains a soil sample, the other tablets
(of aspirin). Names of drugs scroll across the appropriate side as the narrator
speaks them.
In the early 1940s, researchers
achieved several breakthroughs in quick succession, discovering drugs deadly
to bacilli but safe for its human hosts. The first such drugs were streptomycin, extracted from a mold found
in New Jersey soil, and para-aminosalicylic acid, synthesized from ordinary
aspirin.
Graph of tuberculosis deaths
every ten years, showing steep decline. At
appropriate time, names of tuberculosis drugs scroll across screen: Streptomycin, Para-aminosalicylic acid, Isoniazid,
Rifampicin, Pyrazinamide, Ethambutol, Cycloserine, Ethionamide.
With these drugs available
and used in combination, death rates dropped sharply, but research continued,
working to produce more than a half dozen different drugs to combat resistant
strains of the hardy tubercle bacilli. By the early 1980s, deaths by tuberculosis
were down 99% in the United States.
Rising music. Animation of
medicine dropper dropping on disease names, which "melt away" as they are
hit: Smallpox, Polio, Malaria, Typhus, Cholera, Rabies, Yellow Fever.
The fight against TB is
just one example of innovative research saving millions of lives and countless
billions in healthcare and lost productivity costs. In just the last two
centuries, medical research has discovered drugs to combat infectious killers
that have plagued mankind for centuries.
Same animation, but flowing
back from the area where the conquered infectious diseases dissolved, names
of other diseases rise: AIDS, Sepsis, Streptococcus A, Staphylococcus aureus,
Hepatitis, Tuberculosis, Drug-resistant microbes.
But there are new, and potentially
even more deadly battles to be fought and won. AIDS. Sepsis. Streptococcus
A. Staphylococcus aureus. Hepatitis. And perhaps most frightening, tuberculosis.
In the last few years, doctors have treated cases in which TB microbes, often
in combination with AIDS, demonstrate resistance to the drugs that have kept
them under control for decades.
Ward photo from opening. Sounds
of coughing, etc.
The battle against disease
is never-ending. Old killers are brought under control, but new ones are
constantly emerging.
Previous screen dissolves to
montage of research-oriented photos, reminiscent of TB research screen top
page 2, but contemporary.
Humankind's first line of
defense lies with systematic and innovative medical research performed by
the best minds that science has to offer.
Screen splits so sick ward
and research montage are on opposite sides. Title "The Value of Medicine"
appears as music rises to close.
Investment in their work
is vital to a healthy future.