Reconnaissance for Yellow Fever in the Nuba Mountains, Southern Sudan

Read The Essay | Go to NLM Digital Collections | Watch on YouTube | Go to the 1954 Silent Footage | Read Transcript

DATE: 1954 [narration added 2006]

LENGTH: 25 min

CATEGORY: Research & Documentation, Sound, Color

PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: Telford H. Work and Martine Jozan Work

Summary

In the early 1950s Dr. Telford H. Work and Dr. Richard Moreland Taylor traveled to the Sudan to study an outbreak of yellow fever. Flying to Khartoum, they took their equipment by train to El Obeid, and by jeep to the Nuba Mountains (spanning the southern part of the present-day post-partition Sudan and the northern part of South Sudan). Accompanied by Dr. Mansour Ali Haseeb, they wound their way through the region, collecting blood samples from people and primates, and ended at Wau, from which the samples were airlifted back to Khartoum. The film was originally silent. Produced in its current form by Dr. Martine Jozan Work, it lies at the juncture of home movie, expeditionary report and documentary…Read The Essay

Supplementary Materials

Film Stills from Reconnaissance for Yellow Fever in the Nuba Mountains, Southern Sudan

A small primate with grey-brown fur, a long thin tail and big eyes sits on a branch.

Black people in a mix of western and African clothing stand in a group.

A map of Africa showing the equatorial region, including southern Sudan, as containing endemic trypanozomiasis (sleeping sickness) and the Tse Tse Fly.

An areal view from a small plane of a small city along a river.

A white man takes blood from a black adolescent boy.

Small sailing vessels pass on the river.

A shallow earth pit with water in it, drawn up with a soft bucket.

Near a dirt road an animal skin is propped on branches.

Houses are made of branches and coated with mud smoothed to a ceramic like finish.

In the Collections of the National Library of Medicine

NLM Historical Audiovisuals Collection

For a list of all cataloged Telford Work films in the collection visit the NLM LocatorPlus Catalog. Catalog records include holdings information and links to digitized films in NLM Digital Collections when available. Titles not available in NLM Digital Collections can be requested for viewing on-demand. Contact the Historical Audiovisuals curator via the NLM Support Center.

“The Films of Virologist Telford Work” by Dwight Swanson, also on Medicine on Screen, explores the biography and international epidemiological research of Telford Work through the lens of several of Work’s films.

Yellow Fever in the Sudan, 1954 Silent Footage

Producer/Publisher: Telford H. Work and Martine Jozan Work
Date: 1954
NLM Unique ID: 101216646

Digitized Films on Tropical Disease at the National Library of Medicine

Explore tropical disease films in the NLM Digital Collections

Learn more about NLM holdings of tropical disease films in the Guide to Tropical Disease Motion Pictures and Audiovisuals

NLM Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collection

Telford H. Work Papers. Located in: Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collection, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD; MS C 564.

The papers of Telford H. Work (1921–1995) highlight international research and teaching in the field of arbovirology and tropical disease. The collection, which spans from 1938-1990, contains material about his education, career, hobbies, and achievements.

Related Resources from the National Library of Medicine

See current information on yellow fever and other hemorrhagic fevers from MedlinePlus.

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