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Learn more- At the beginning of the 1980s, a new epidemic came over the world with AIDS. Epidemics were never extinct, they spread fear and terror - in every age. The increase in scientific knowledge has not changed this. New reports are heard almost daily: deadly epidemics with Ebola viruses, new pathogens cause mad cow disease, antibiotics fail against multi-resistant bacteria. Worse still: the old "great epidemics" are returning. The cause: poverty, misery, hunger and wars, collapse of health systems in the East, spread through mass tourism, open borders and globalisation. The three-part television series "The Diseases" describes three of the classic "scourges of humanity": tuberculosis, cholera and syphilis. The films show spread, causes and historical consequences: effects of the respective disease on culture and society, dealing with the infected, scientific search for pathogens and treatment options.
"Currently not to extinct !" - is the WHO's declaration of bankruptcy. Particularly in Bengal, Africa and South America, cholera claims tens of thousands of victims every year. The treatment is not a problem, as long as simple medical facilities are available - and - clean water. Conventional vaccines have lost their effectiveness - the side effects are considerable. Developing new vaccines suitable for children costs a lot of money. The pharmaceutical industry has no interest in production - the victims are not solvent, the epidemics are far away. In its cultural arrogance, the Occident felt safe from the Indian epidemic. But especially in the centres of the so-called cultural states: Berlin, Paris, London, and in the rich port cities such as Hamburg, the epidemic struck particularly relentlessly and unmasked the social grievances here. Dying of cholera is unappetizing and often takes place in public. Death often comes within hours. This simply leaves no time for a fateful transfiguration of the disease. At the beginning of the 20th century, cholera set itself in motion from the Indian subcontinent. In 1830 it was on the borders of Central Europe. Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz, the great Prussian theorist on the art of war, fails to avert the epidemic by military means. He dies of it. Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch compete to be the first to discover the pathogen. Here, too, it took 50 years to find an effective medical therapy. But as long as there is poverty, misery and war, the disease cannot be defeated.
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