St. Louis Encephalitis Epidemic

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DATE: 1964

LENGTH: 12 min

CATEGORY: Research and Documentation, Color, Silent

CREATOR: Telford H. Work

Summary

The 1964 outbreaks of St. Louis Encephalitis in Houston, Texas and McLeansboro in Southern Illinois resulted in 243 confirmed cases and 27 deaths in Houston and 22 cases and two deaths in Illinois. A team of CDC scientists, led by Telford Work, were sent to Illinois and Texas to collect mosquitos and wild birds to investigate the role of birds as hosts of the virus. This film documents the research conducted and is an example of Work’s field research films. Slightly underexposed throughout, it is not one of his most technically assured films, nor is it readily evident how complete the film is. Nevertheless, it is indicative of his style of filmmaking and his aims in using film as a research and teaching aid…Read The Essay

Supplementary Materials

Stills from St. Louis Encephalitis Epidemic

Still frame of the morning sunrise over foggy swamplands

St. Louis Encephalitis Epidemic

A white man wearing a hat and dressed in khaki-colored clothes walks into the woods

A white man wearing a hat and khaki-colored clothes sits and reads on a log in the woods

A white man pulling a rope to connect four stick poles in the woods

Five white men doing research around a portable table in the woods

White man writing with a pencil in a notebook

A white man wearing a hat and khaki-colored clothes reading from a test tube while sitting in the woods

A white man placing a test tube inside a portable outdoor cooler

An aerial shot featuring a populated region surrounded by agricultural areas

Still frame of a white man's arms and hands steering in a plane's cockpit

A man wearing only shorts using a spray blower machine on foliage in his backyard

Children in swimming clothes jump in a pool as a shirtless man with a spray blower turns it on the children

A fully clothed man is sprayed by a shirtless man holding a spray blower by the pool

Other Films Featured in the Essay “The Films of Virologist Telford Work”

Maturation of a Medic

Space, Bears, Ticks, Tulips

Pharaohs and Fellahs

Kyasanur Forest Disease

Monsoon Mosaic

Fevers, Ticks, and Caviar

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.

NLM Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collections

History of Medicine Finding Aids is the central access point, provided by the Archives and Modern Manuscripts, Prints and Photographs, and Historical Audiovisuals collections, for information and descriptions of archival collections at the National Library of Medicine. Explore the complete Finding Aid to the Telford H. Work Papers.

The following images are selections from the Telford H. Work Papers, Series 14: Photographs, 1940s–1970s.

A black and white image of a white man in a lab coat sitting at a desk with the world map behind him

A photograph of a middle-aged white man in a plaid shirt and black pants standing to the right of an older white man looking at the insects in his mosquito catcher

A man on the left dressed in a lab coat and a man on the right dressed in a suit both pick ticks off one tree each with tweezers in their hands

Six men, both young and old, do research outside on a porch. Three are shirtless, one is in a tank top, and the other two are wearing short sleeve button up shirts

An older couple posing together with a younger, middle-aged man standing next to them in the backyard patio

An ID card in Arabic featuring a white male in a suit and tie

A photograph of three Japanese men and five Japanese women standing beside an army truck with two white soldiers and a building with trees behind them

A white man in a red flannel and hat reading from a small book to a Sami man dressed in indigenous clothing with a lake, trees, and mountains in the background

Two white men and two men of color work outside with test tubes, nets, and tables underneath a tree

A candid photograph of two white men smiling in suits with a white woman wearing a dress, pearl necklace, and pearl earrings standing between them

A white woman in a dress with a handbag and pearl jewelry listening to a white man in a suit standing next to her. In the background are three Indian men and one Indian woman

Two white men crouched down in the bushes by a river, looking inside a cup

A cartoon poster in Russian featuring a magnifying glass with an enlarged tick in the top half and a group of people demonstrating tick inspections in the bottom half

A group of Indian male workers, with Indian female helpers, posing on a building's exterior scaffolding

A photograph of forty to sixty people, containing predominantly men and only three women, dressed in lab coats outside the steps of a building

An older white male with glasses, a hat, and jacket tending to the arm of a shirtless black boy with four black people observing and standing behind them. In the background are outdoor wooden tables and chairs, huts, and a Jeep

A white male standing outside in a striped short sleeve shirt and khaki pants with a black bird on his left shoulder and another black bird on his right shoulder. A vintage camera and tripod is placed in front of him.

A white male with glasses holding onto a crow while another white male draws blood from the crow using a syringe

From left to right, a white male, Indonesian man, white female, and another Indonesian man sit with tea and tea cups in front of them and a blackboard with a large table and numbers located on the wall behind them

A white male in a military visor cap sitting inside a military vehicle holding and reading a map of Japan and Korea

An older white male on his knees examining a shirtless Indian man lying down on the ground with a thermometer in his mouth

A white male in a lab coat blowing into a long pipette in a makeshift lab

A white male sitting behind a film projector with a group of black women and children sitting criss-crossed on the ground with mats, looking at a projection

A white man in military clothing looking down at the film camera in his hands while he stands up against a military vehicle

A Middle Eastern man in traditional Emirati attire and a white male in a military visor cap and long sleeve buttoned shirt smiling and posing towards the camera

Two white men sitting outside in camping chairs with a vintage camera and sign to the right that reads, "Have Your Party Photographed / Yosemite National Park / Yosemite Park and Curry Co." with six sample photographs on the sign

Related Resources from the National Library of Medicine

Medicine on Screen

Also on Medicine on Screen is an essay “An Epidemiological Expedition Into the Interior of Africa” by Paul Theerman, PhD, that discusses another film by Work, Reconnaissance for Yellow Fever in the Nuba Mountains, Southern Sudan, 1954 in the NLM Collections. NLM also holds a silent version, Yellow Fever in the Sudan, that provided the footage for Reconnaissance for Yellow Fever.

Circulating Now

Learn more about collections related to virology on Circulating Now, specifically, see NLM Collections Tour: Epidemics and NLM Collections Tour: Vaccines.

MedlinePlus

For trusted, current health information explore the MedlinePlus health topic on viral infections. Learn about current research and education in virology in the MedlinePlus Magazine article “The Montana Wild Virus Hunt.”

External Resources

Articles and Websites

“Telford H. Work: A Tribute,” by Charles H. Calisher, Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, 1996, accessed via The Biodiversity Library, cited in PubMed

“Debunking COVID-19 Myths” from the Mayo Clinic

Virology at NIH

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) conducts and supports basic and applied research to better understand, treat, and ultimately prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. Learn more about the NIAID Laboratory of Virology.

St. Louis Encephalitis Epidemic

Summary

Supplementary Materials

Stills from St. Louis Encephalitis Epidemic

Other Films Featured in the Essay “The Films of Virologist Telford Work”

In the Collections of the National Library of Medicine

NLM Historical Audiovisuals Collection

NLM Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collections

Related Resources from the National Library of Medicine

Medicine on Screen

Circulating Now

MedlinePlus

External Resources

Articles and Websites

Virology at NIH

More Medicine on Screen

Posted by:Circulating Now

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