PBS program on global health starts Nov. 1

[Roland98]

Sorry, I'm totally spamming this everywhere, but I'm really looking forward to this tomorrow. Be sure to check out Rx for Survival: a Global Health Challenge November 1-3 on your local PBS station. Program synopsis:

Over the past 150 years, stunning breakthroughs in public health have enabled humans to live longer, healthier and more productive lives. Clean drinking water, modern sanitation and good nutrition, along with the development of highly effective vaccines and antibiotics have increased average western life expectancy by an astonishing 35 years. But, the benefits of public health have yet to be extended to many of the poorest nations in the developing world.

Meanwhile, in the past two decades, infectious diseases that had nearly been conquered, such as tuberculosis, have come surging back, while devastating new diseases such as AIDS, SARS and West Nile Virus have emerged. Microbial resistance to many modern drugs is rising, threatening people everywhere. And in our world of globalized travel, the latest epidemic is only a plane ride away.

From vaccines to antibiotics, clean water to nutrition, bio-terror threats to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the six-part series Rx for Survival tells the compelling stories of global health champions and the communities they strive to protect. Employing both historical dramatic sequences and poignant current documentary stories, the series will showcase key milestones in public health history, such as the eradication of smallpox, alongside modern and future challenges, including SARS, a potential global flu pandemic and recovery from the Asian tsunami catastrophe. Brad Pitt narrates, and Experts including Jeffrey Sachs, the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University; author Laurie Garrett; Harvey Fineberg, President of the National Academies of Sciences Institute of Medicine; Nils Daulaire, President of the Global Health Council; and Donald Hopkins, the Associate Executive Director of the Carter Center, will guide viewers through the ins and outs of this complex but fascinating story.

Topics include:

Disease Warriors
Rise of the Superbugs
Delivering the Goods
Deadly Messengers
Back to the Basics
How Safe Are We?

Global health, infectious disease, scientific experts, and Brad Pitt--what more could you ask for? Plus, I already know it's going to kick ass because a college friend of mine worked on the show, so I have no problem recommending it in advance.