And why not? Doctors are, after all, on the front lines of a pitched battle against an invisible enemy most of us are powerless to stop. Without them, our teeth would be falling out and we’d be losing limbs over minor scrapes. We’re so accustomed to the wonders of modern medicine we take for granted how wondrous it really is.
A new poster series by the Center for Infectious Disease Research seeks to remind us of this basic fact. Done in a delightfully retro style that evokes World War II health propaganda and Cold War-era science fiction, Human vs. Pathogen sheds light on the age-old battle between man and disease.
As John Aitchison, scientific director at CIDResearch notes in a blog post, that battle is far from over, even when it comes to illnesses that we’ve known about for centuries:
‘Old news’ diseases are often relegated to the back page. The tidal wave of attention we’ve seen for Zika and Ebola is precisely what we need for other global diseases that quietly continue to have an astronomical, sustained human impact, such as HIV, TB, and malaria.
At the most basic level, we hope to capture a few imaginations, pique curiosity, and ultimately encourage more people to be advocates for infectious disease science, in every medium.
Malaria research is cool and important, people! Also, CIDResearch is soliciting donations. For $25 (£19.17), you can be part of the cure, and a high-res digital copy of this slick poster (which I’m pretty sure is the never-released sequel to Them!) can be yours:
Along with a few others gems: