Unseen Enemies

Made by the Shell Film Unit, this is quite a fascinating short documentary that illustrates the advances in treatment for a variety of diseases that afflict people the world over. It's largely centred in Africa where the effects of Elephantiasis and Beri Beri are clear to see on a population that's malnourished and reliant on some pretty filthy water supplies, but it also ventures into Asia and even Europe as it demonstrates just how science and in particular antibiotics can combat these debilitating and frequently life-shortening ailments. There's some interesting photography that shows us these menacingly microscopic bacteria in their natural habitat and the narration is peppered with statistics about the extent to which the human population is susceptible to these illnesses as well as to how potent inoculation, vaccination and fumigation can be, especially when coupled with improvements to the infrastructure, diet and education provided to people whose housing is little better than a cave. It's also quite noticeable just how accepting these people are of the needles and pills that perhaps their more squeamish "Western" counterparts might shy away from. There is a little of the simplistic to the thrust: mass scale manufacture, distribution and the spread of disease via modern methods of transportation are mentioned really only in passing, but it's still quite an enlightening half hour that's worth a watch if you're at all interested in the evolution of global medical and societal sciences and it still resonates today - some sixty-five years after it was made.