Tuberculosis: Captain of the Armies of Death.

In the 1950’s drugs put tuberculosis out of business. Drug resistance has bought it back as a more formidable threat. Medical malpractice, political neglect and the spread of AIDS has helped TB to mutate into the 'Captain of the armies of Death.' It is a bigger killer than malaria and AIDS combined.

In the 1990’s the WHO designated a number of TB hotspots. The Former Soviet Union was of them. This documentary project visits the civilian sanatorium where TB programs, clean food, water and medical knowledge is sparse. Where the living environment represents some of the unhealthiest places on earth. To sanatoriums for children hidden away in the Siberian forest and inside the Siberian Gulags where cramped, squalid conditions have facilitated the rise of Multi Drug resistant TB.

Many have been left to die within walls of TB institutions and prisons. In the few situations where the political will and finance has initiated WHO programs, patients with non-resistant TB have been given the chance to survive. To date, Mutli Drug resistant patients, despite their desperate needs and threat to community health are labelled as ‘untreatable.’

Exhibited – Visa pour L’Image, Perpignan, 2000.

Recipient of the International Award for Documentary Photography and Medal of Excellence, 2002. www.fiftycrows.com