Summary: Drawing on documentary and archival footage, 3-D and 2-D animations, and high-tech imaging, this program investigates a variety of virological topics: the nature of pandemics as illustrated by the SARS outbreak in China; genetic sequencing of Spanish influenza from exhumed tissue of a century-old corpse; how animal viruses jump the species barrier; the dissection of live viruses in a biosafety...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: From SARS to the swine flu, viruses that threaten the developed world seem to be growing in ranks. Even as medical science rises to the challenge, our knowledge of viruses is filled with troubling gaps and bewildering realities. Starting on the virus front lines-the rainforests of central Africa-this program unlocks the truth about nature's greatest terror weapons. Viewers learn why HIV is such...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: In an escalating war between humans and microbes, catastrophic disease may have the edge. This program studies the ubiquitous threat posed by super viruses and describes scientific efforts to prepare for viral disease epidemics. Documenting the World Health Organization's response to the 2005 Angolan Marburg virus outbreak, the program examines strengths and weaknesses in the WHO...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This engaging program delves into the microscopic milieu that overlays life as human beings know it, illustrating the complex relationship between the microscopic and macroscopic worlds as the human host, with its billions of microbial allies and antagonists, journeys from the birth canal to the decomposition that follows death. Spectacular 3-D computer animation, case study footage, and expert...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: What is it like to live with a life-threatening illness? Can fear, anger, and joy be translated into movement? In this program, journalist Bill Moyers and filmmaker David Grubin give viewers a rare glimpse into dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones's highly acclaimed dance, "Still/Here. At workshops around the country, people facing life-threatening illnesses are asked to remember the highs and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Ebola, one of the most deadly viruses known to humankind, struck a town in Zaire in January 1995, ultimately causing the agonizing death of 80 percent of its victims-many of them health-care workers. This riveting documentary traces the progress of this outbreak and reports on its aftermath. Doctors at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discuss current research, the virus's possible...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In America, many AIDS patients receive as much as
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Avian influenza A (H5N1) has successfully made the leap from poultry to people. Is a human-to-human pandemic inevitable? Using Southeast Asia as a case study, this Wide Angle report looks at the Vietnamese government's efforts to contain the disease while educating its population. In addition, Bill Moyers speaks with Dr. Anthony Fauci, of the National Institutes of Health, about how this lethal...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: According to The American Journal of Medicine, over 70% of Americans have been infected with a genital human papillomavirus, yet few are aware that they have it-or even know what HPV is. This eye-opening program delivers the facts that high school and college students-the primary victims-need to raise their awareness about an incurable sexually transmitted disease. Doctors, professors, peer...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program presents the human body as a complex ecosystem of bacteria, then examines each portion of the body, which bacteria live there, and why. The three major bacterial groups-sphere-shaped cocci, rods, and helical spirochetes and spirilla-are examined. Their behavior when interacting within the body is explored. The life and death of obligate aerobes, facultative anaerobes, and obligate...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: A killer flu outbreak isn't just a developing-world nightmare. The influenza virus is so adaptable that the West is as vulnerable as anywhere else. This program outlines the history of influenza and explores current research into what steps, if any, might prevent a future flu pandemic. Viewers are shown how the virus mutates to resist vaccines and has an uncanny ability to jump species...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This straight-talking, down-to-earth program describes in detail how HIV is acquired, how it can be prevented, and the relative risks of a wide range of sexual behaviors. Hosted by a young African-American man and Latina woman, the program addresses HIV and AIDS; condoms-what type to use, how to use them correctly, where to get them, and how to properly carry them; injection drug risks;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: An avian influenza epidemic will almost certainly begin where poultry is slaughtered in poorly managed, unsanitary conditions. This semi-dramatized program starts in rural Cambodia, where a mutated H5N1 virus spreads easily from an infected chicken into the local population and prompts a swift response from World Health Organization field workers. Depicting the WHO containment strategy in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although it is rarely fatal in wealthy countries, pneumonia kills more children each year than any other infectious disease. This program explains why the pneumococcus bacterium has run rampant in the underdeveloped world, and explores recent medical breakthroughs that may help reverse the deadly pattern. Interviews with prominent researchers-including Dr. Keith Klugman and Dr. Orin Levine, two...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: After severe acute respiratory syndrome struck down its first known victim, it seemed only fear could spread more rapidly than the disease itself. Little was known about it, except that it was flu-like-and, for 15 percent of patients, lethal. Filmed in the wake of the initial SARS onslaught, this gripping program describes the World Health Organization's decisive counterattack. Julie Hall, of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Most people associate cirrhosis with alcoholism-but another cause of liver scarring and failure is HCV, one of the most severe strains of hepatitis. This program provides a basic medical understanding of the virus, presents various ways that it is transmitted, and explores what many call a groundbreaking method of Hepatitis C treatment. Veteran researchers and doctors-Professor Eugene Shiff of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program discusses the nature of the HIV virus and shows how it propagates by utilizing living cells. Its organization is examined, along with its most prominent genes-gag, pol, and env. Reverse transcription-the process by which the virus enters the DNA-is examined. Prevention of the reverse transcription process, along with the development of protease inhibitors and genetically engineered...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Why is a cure so elusive? Why has it been so difficult to find a cure or vaccine for AIDS? What makes AIDS so deadly? What is the HIV virus, and how does it devastate the immune system? This eye-opening video explores these questions, providing fascinating insights into the unique qualities of the HIV virus that make AIDS such a relentless killer.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS is not only a vast humanitarian tragedy, but also a dire threat to regional stability. This Wide Angle documentary explores the role of Angola's military, the only functioning arm of the state, in a nationwide effort to combat the AIDS pandemic. The program identifies what may be the only benefit of Angola's long civil war-specifically, one of the lowest HIV...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program provides a clinical overview of benign bacteria that commonly colonize the human body and, less commonly, pathogens of both infectious and transient asymptomatic strains. Two dramatized throat examinations demonstrate the diagnosis of Streptococcus pyogenes and infectious mononucleosis. Laboratory analysis of a throat culture and a blood sample is demonstrated. Slide images,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Scientists have identified over 200 viruses, and an estimated 1,000 more may lurk undiscovered throughout the world. This program examines current scientific research on emerging viruses. Live-action microscopy shows the impact of the HIV virus on the human immune system. Sophisticated animation depicting viral life cycles reinforces the concept that the best defense against dangerous viruses...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Quick to spread and develop resistance to medical intervention, new strains of microbes pose a growing threat to global health. How does overuse of antibiotics actually encourage more lethal strains of diseases believed to be conquered? How can the media successfully inform the public without causing panic? And should personal rights be curtailed during epidemics? This Fred Friendly Seminar,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Estimated to infect about one-fifth of the world's population, worm parasites are especially destructive in poor, rural areas of the developing world. This program focuses on the hookworm, the stealthiest and most resilient of the helminth, or worm, varieties. Examining the insidious methods by which hookworm parasites enter the human body, the video shows how they endanger their hosts and what...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Illustrating connections between globalization and the spread of disease, this program uses data-mapping to assess the potential impact of deadly viruses-including the much-feared and adaptable avian influenza. Outbreaks of bird flu in the Netherlands and West Nile virus in New York City illustrate the increasing mobility of exotic pathogens in an era of frequent international travel and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006