When polio vaccines were first developed, many experts thought the disease would be fully eradicated within decades. Tragically, as this film shows, it has survived in places like Afghanistan and northern Nigeria. These locations are now acting as disease reservoirs, with children the hardest-hit demographic and with travelers re-infecting other countries once thought invulnerable. Additionally, in the pre-vaccine world, everyone had a degree of natural...

Currently, three-quarters of all U.S. healthcare dollars are spent on 100 million people with chronic illnesses and conditions. Will a cost-conscious healthcare system, increasingly driven by the market and oriented toward acute care, give them the proper care? This program examines how the chronically ill are faring today in seeking the high-quality, long-term care they need. Special reports focus on cases of patients with cancer, victims of stroke...

The oceans are being emptied. This isn't just bad news for the 200 million people who make a living fishing, it's a crisis for planet Earth. The Marine Stewardship Council uses market forces to create sustainable fisheries, offering the world's only internationally recognized seafood eco-labeling system. It uses independent assessors who grant MSC certification only to products of sustainable fisheries, and it has grown into a major international...

Four in five Americans say the health care system needs fundamental change. Can the U.S. learn anything from the rest of the world about how to make medical care and insurance accessible to all? Or are countries with government-run coverage so culturally different from America that their solutions are unworkable here? In this episode of Frontline, correspondent T. R. Reid examines the public systems of other advanced capitalist democracies-including...

There are places in America where the infant mortality rate echoes that of a developing world country. This ABC News program travels to Memphis, Tennessee-epicenter of the nation's worst infant death statistics-to investigate the issue and explore possible solutions. Viewers visit a cemetery with the heartrending epithet "Babyland" and witness an unusual pairing between a black, teen mother-to-be and a white, suburban church volunteer trying to prevent...

Obesity is a widely discussed issue, and yet one of its principal causes - fast food consumption - shows no sign of going away. This program explores the popularity of convenience meals and the growing health and social concerns associated with them. Viewers learn about direct links between high-fat, high-sugar, highly processed foods and severe physiological problems as well as socioeconomic challenges. In addition, the video investigates a number...

The deep tan was accidentally popularized by Coco Chanel, yet even when Bob Marley died of melanoma decades later, the general public was still not fully aware of the dangers of UV radiation. This program examines not only the medical and scientific aspects of skin cancer, but its cultural, historical, and social facets as well. Using nationally known experts and dramatic personal testimony, it describes symptoms and risk factors - including indiscriminate...

This multi-section program examines the relationships between established sociological perspectives-structural functionalism, Marxist theory, and early feminist theory-and the family; investigates how over several decades the decline in marriage, an increase in cohabitation and divorce, and the lowering fertility rate in the U.K. have affected the British nuclear family; and juxtaposes the old sociology of families and the new, with its emphasis on...

Ron was an active 76-year-old when he underwent articular surface replacement, or ASR, for one of his hips. Soon after his surgery a lump the size of a grapefruit developed on the side of his leg. Five operations later, he can barely walk. Another case study features Catherine, who had ASR in her early 40s and now suffers from toxic levels of cobalt in her system. Ron and Catherine are among the multitude of patients worldwide facing a painful, uncertain...

Brain drain is a core problem in the developing world, and an especially tragic one in the field of health care. For many African countries, training new doctors and nurses is almost a fruitless enterprise-since, upon completion of their schooling, these young professionals typically leave for high-paying positions abroad. This program analyzes the predicament by following a young, Malawi-born gynecologist as he wrestles with a fateful decision. Should...