Tech elite use net to fight TB

2008-10-04 14:40

San Francisco - Acclaimed photojournalist James Nachtwey's dream of using images to marshal arms in the battle against tuberculosis is coming true with the help of technology titans.

Nachtwey's photos portraying victims of the increasingly drug-resistant deadly disease and dire conditions in Africa and elsewhere are spreading on the internet with help from tech firms including YouTube and Akamai.

Mammalfish put its software savvy to work building the www.xdrtb.org website that debuted on Friday presenting Nachtwey's dramatic images and recruits support for stopping the spread of "extremely drug resistant tuberculosis."

"Photographers go to the extreme edges of human experience to show people what's going on," Nachtwey said.

"They aim their pictures at your best instincts: generosity, a sense of right and wrong, the ability and the willingness to identify with others, the refusal to accept the unacceptable."

20 000 preventable deaths a year

A virulent, mutated strain of tuberculosis known as XDR-TB is found in 49 countries and is blamed for more than 20 000 preventable deaths annually.

"We hope that the visibility achieved by the global unveiling of these photos will underscore the danger ... spur people around the world to demand action, and spur world leaders to act," said Joanne Carter, executive director of medical advocacy group RESULTS USA.

Nachtwey's pictures will be projected in public spaces in New York, Paris, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Seoul, Hong Kong, London and other cities around the world, with viewing events slated on all seven continents.

Singer Paul Simon and Larry Brilliant, the head of philanthropic Google.org, were among those slated to attend a Nachtwey photo slideshow event in New York City on Friday.

Nachtwey's vision was made real as the result of a "wish" granted him by a Technology, Entertainment and Design conference where the powerful, famous, influential and brilliant share visions for bettering the world.

"I'm working on a story that the world needs to know about," Nachtwey said while urging TED to back his idea in 2007.

"I wish for you to help me break it, in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age."

TED "curator" Chris Anderson on Friday called on the group's influential and creative members to help Nachtwey spread word of the need to battle XDR-TB.

"Forward this email, blog, write, broadcast, talk with your family, friends and work colleagues," Anderson said in a message to "Tedizens."

"This is a race between the ability of deadly, mutated bacteria to spread, and our ability to spread awareness first."

- AFP