smallpox and bcg - vaccination
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Playing with camera settings achieved a studio-like image of this cone flower, while out in the garden
PH-BCG - Boeing 737-8K2.
KLM.
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (EHAM/AMS).
09MAY2021.
Photo: Bruno Proence Alves.
Obs: The 73 getting ready for another flight at Schiphol.
A macro of this flower came out very well, with a pretty crisp pistil as the petals fall into the background.
The sun dipped below an overcast sky to light up the canyon walls.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
Better on my Blog
Exposure0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperturef/2.8
Focal Length200 mm
ISO Speed500
Exposure Bias-1/3 EV
FlashNo Flash
A composite artistic illustration of three empty beds inside a deserted sanatorium. On one bed there are three doses of « vaccin BCG pour immunisation des nouveau-nés » (BCG vaccine for immunization of newborns); they were produced in 1931 by Institut Pasteur de Paris. Vivien Leigh’s face emerges as an ethereal reminder of the famous star’s death of tuberculosis.
In the past, physicians knew their patients didn’t even want to hear the name of their dreadful diagnosis, so they avoided saying it in full; they used the “TB” abbreviation instead. Tuberculosis (aka Consumption or Phthisis) was uniformly fatal and contagious and a social stigma, all at the same time! Almost half the pages of many medical textbooks were dedicated to this disease, as if Tuberculosis were the leading star amidst all other infections.
Notorious failures ensued from erroneous attempts to treat the disease by compulsory bedrest, being admitted to high-altitude sanatoria, collapse-therapy and the like. Even bloodletting was once advertised for treating tuberculosis!
It was only in the 1950s that effective medication was introduced for treatment (streptomycin discovered in 1944, isoniazid in 1952, rifampicin later etc.).
“Bacille de Calmette-Guérin” (B.C.G.) is the name of the vaccine against tuberculosis; it was introduced in 1921, after being developed over a period of 13 years (1908-1921). BCG is produced from a weakened strain of Mycobacterium bovis. The vaccine can prevent some rare and extremely-rapidly progressing forms of tuberculosis (such as tuberculous meningitis and miliary dissemination via the bloodstream) in newborn babies and infants, if administered 6 weeks after birth rather than at the traditional age of 13 years. The BCG vaccine produces almost lifelong cellular immunity and, consequently, diminishes the diagnostic value of tuberculin tests (e.g. Mantoux) for the rest of the vaccinated persons’ lives.
BCG-vaccinated persons can be affected by Pulmonary Tuberculosis all right (and die of it, if left undiagnosed or untreated) as much as unvaccinated adults can. The introduction of the BCG vaccine in 1921 didn’t impede the spread of tuberculosis in the world; effective antituberculous antibiotics did in the 1950s!
Currently, cases of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis are very challenging to treat especially in immunocompromised patients. Modern-day physicians are less experienced and less familiarized with diagnosing tuberculosis either in the lab or in the clinical setting.
Sandy from the archive. Please comment if you fav, thanks.
See more in the album here: www.flickr.com/photos/bcg_photography/albums/721577195487...
Kendra, possibly the longest legs I've ever shot. See Kendras album here : www.flickr.com/photos/bcg_photography/albums/721577155793...