Plate from Handbook on Leprosy; Its Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention, 1921

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The Public Health Film Goes to War

Public health and war have long been close companions, and maybe strange bedfellows.The synergistic relationship between health professionals and the military especially flourished during the most massive conflict of all: World War II. Many of the techniques developed in Hollywood entertainment films over the previous decade came to be used to build audience support and participation for public health programs and mobilizations. The most elaborate were those produced by the United States Armed Forces.

Dos Caminos (ca. 1974)

This short dramatic film, made in El Salvador, addresses problems caused by ignorance about human sexuality and myths and misunderstandings about conception and pregnancy. Two village girls travel to the capital for schooling. One is studious and careful and returns to her village to work in the health clinic. The other becomes enchanted with the city's social life, falls for a man, and finds herself pregnant before she is ready. Two different roads lead to very different outcomes.