The New York Times - November 1, 2005
Anita Gates

This story is told in "Disease Warriors," Part 1 of a valuable six-hour, six-part PBS program, "Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge," which begins with the first two hours tonight.

"Disease Warriors" starts with hopeful reports. A few years ago, there were 175,000 cases of polio every year in India. Now there are fewer than 100. But if the disease is to be wiped out, as smallpox was roughly three decades ago, every young child has to be vaccinated.

This is a major logistical challenge, but the teams of doctors and trained local volunteers are getting there. The real problem is resistance. Parents tell them that they don't want their children inoculated for religious reasons. "Allah keeps my child safe," one man says. Some adults believe the vaccine causes future impotence.

But in general, that battle is being won, because vaccinations perform miracles.

After more than 20 years of research, though, there is still no vaccine against AIDS, which has killed more than 20 million people worldwide. There has been one promising development: in Nairobi, a group of prostitutes appear to have natural immunity against H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, because they have an abnormally large number of killer T-cells. With that knowledge, a vaccine is undergoing trials, but even if it happens to work, the process of bringing it to the market will take years.

Part 2, "Rise of the Superbugs," is even less cheerful.

"Our medicines are failing," says the program's narrator, Brad Pitt. Mr. Pitt, who comes across as concerned if not completely comprehending, has the task of sharing additional gloomy forecasts - "These deadly strains can become undefeatable," for instance, and "The bugs will never go away."

After a quick visit to 1928, when Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin (because he was too lazy to wash all his petri dishes promptly), and a look at its mass production and the age of miracle drugs that followed, "Rise of the Superbugs" moves on to the current crisis. Many strains of diseases that had been largely conquered have become resistant to drug treatment.

Asked if people should be frightened about this, Steve Projan of Wyeth, the pharmaceutical company, says, "I think they should be terrified."

The program follows real-life cases, including that of Raquel, a South American woman with highly resistant tuberculosis that has failed to respond to numerous antibiotics, and Ryan, a Seattle man who came down with a resistant infection during kidney dialysis. In Raquel's case, there are other drugs to try but they could cost $15,000 to $20,000. In Ryan's case, a surgeon tries to cut out the infection. Ryan is also given an experimental drug, tigecycline. The two cases have different outcomes.

"Rx for Survival" has simplified its message just enough to be clear to nonscientists, and watching it is certainly an alarming, consciousness-raising exercise. Episodes about mosquito-borne disease and about the transport of medicines to remote populations will be shown tomorrow night. The program will conclude on Thursday with episodes about nutrition and new infectious diseases, including avian flu.

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Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge

PBS, tonight, tomorrow and Thursday at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.; check local listings.

Paula S. Apsell, executive in charge and senior executive producer for WGBH/NOVA Science Unit; Larry Klein, executive producer; Paul G. Allen and Jody Patton, executives in charge, Vulcan Productions; Richard Hutton, executive producer and vice president of media development, Vulcan Productions. Produced by WGBH/NOVA Science Unit and Vulcan Productions Inc.

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