THE GILDED VECTORS OF DISEASE
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"IN THE SWEDISH TOWN OF HURDENBERG, THE MAYOR WAS SELECTED BY LICE..." – EP 1 LOUSE

Click here to find out more about the fascinating LSHTM OPEN HOUSE EXHIBITION, open to the public 1-15 Aug only for London 2012 and featuring The Gilded Vectors of Disease!

EPISODE 1 LOUSE 4 APRIL 7:30PM (BST)

Presenter: Rebecca Tremain. Special Guest, Professor of Public Health & Entomology Steve Lindsay has studied vector-borne diseases for nearly 30 years and worked all over the world. He was was part of the pioneering team in the 1980s proving how insecticide-treated bednets reduced malaria deaths. His expertise in things small, crawling, flying and potentially deadly is second to none. He has a special fascination for the tiny but game changing louse. Steve has some very unexpected stories to tell and there's a truly novel suggestion for the 2012 London mayoral election... Pittsburgh writer and artist Justin Hopper takes us on a vivid journey into the trenches of WW1.

EPISODE 2 RAT 11 APRIL 7:30PM (BST)

Presenter: Rebecca Tremain. Special Guest Dr Caroline Lynch is an epidemiologist who maps the patterns of disease in populations. Are you really never more than 50 yards from a rat in London? Dr Jon Cuccui is a Pathogen Molecular Biologist & plague expert who was part of a remarkable project to extract DNA from the teeth of medieval plague victims' skeletons discovered in London. Paul Sherreard (London Metropolitan Archives Interpretation Officer) gives a richly entertaining insight into the Victorian obseesion with tunnelling. Guest poet George Stone delivers a spellbinding tale of unwelcome arrivals in England and misplaced blame.

EPISODE 3 BEDBUG 18 APRIL 7:30PM (BST)

Presenter: Rebecca Tremain. Special Guest Dr James Logan (zoologist, entomologist and LSHTM Lecturer in Medical Entomology) is a familiar face on TV bringing to life the complexities of science with clarity and youthful charisma. He could soon become the Nemesis of the bedbug too. Dr Richard Barnett (Wellcome Trust Public Engagement Fellow and medical historian) and Kelley Swaine (Writer-in-Residence at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science) join James in the School’s bizarrely fascinating Insectaries hidden beneath the streets of Bloomsbury to visit bedbug Colditz, where nothing's getting out...

EPISODE 5 FLEA 2 MAY 7:30PM (BST)

Presenter: Rebecca Tremain. Special Guest Cheryl Whitehorn is the Senior Scientific Officer at the Faculty of Infectious & Tropical Diseases. An insect-identication specialist extraordinaire, Cheryl Whitehorn is the Sherlock Holmes of the School. Cheryl's fascinating knowledge and enthusiasm for her subjects is as infectious as the diseases they can transmit, but thankfully a great deal more enjoyable. Rebecca meets the Brazilian Salmon Pink Bird-eating Tarantula who shares Cheryl's lab and makes some surprising discoveries about the Victorian flea circus. Dr Caroline Lynch meets Museum of London Senior Curator Beverley Cook to discover how the Victorian gentlewomen of the Ladies' Sanitary Association, with precisely no hands-on domestic experience of their own, set about tackling home hygiene and fleas in the slums. Guest poet Nicholas Alexander ruminates on uninvited little guests.

(All audio and visual materials from the Gilded Vectors of Disease radio series copyright control The Mustard Club
and contributing artists. Unauthorised duplication, distribution or usage strictly prohibited)

EPISODE 6 SNAKE 9 MAY 7:30PM (BST)

Presenter: Rebecca Tremain. Guest Reporter and episode co-deviser: Gary Merry. Is Gary's fear of snakes (Ophidiophobia) inherited or learnt? He asks special guest Dr Val Curtis, behavioural scientist and Director of the Hygiene Centre at the LSHTM and regular contributor to TV and radio (C4's The Anatomy of Disgust, BBC Human Instincts, The Body Snatchers). Renowned experts in snake-bite treatment and venom research David Lalloo (Professor of Tropical Medicine at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and venom specialist) and Dr Robert Harrison (Senior Lecturer and Head of the Alistair Reid Venom Research Unit) explain why snake bite is one of the world's most under-resourced and under-recognised tropical diseases, and so difficult to tackle. Our ophidiophobic crash-test reporter has a riveting encounter with lethally venomous Puff Adders. Actor and director Sonia Ritter brings to life the ancient Palestinian tale of how the snake became the most unloved creature of all. A gripping programme highlighting a world health problem we need to take notice of.

EPISODE 7 TICK 16 MAY 7:30PM (BST)

Presenter: Rebecca Tremain. Special Guests: Dr Toby Leslie (Research Fellow for the ACT Consortium) has been working in Kabul, Afghanistan, investigating the outbreak of tick-borne Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) there and its impact on an already beleagured and war-torn population. He also discusses how radio is being used to communicate public health information in regions such as this. Also features Patience Fominyen and the Cameroon-based Radio Health International and Resonance FM's Vincent Luttman. Rebecca meets one of the School's archivists, Emma Golding, to look at some of the medical and historical treasures in the School's collection. Guest writer Lucy Greeves gives a stunningly evocative reading from her memoirs of living in Kenya as the young daughter of missionary parents and reveals the trials faced by 19th century missionaries in Africa.

Preview MISSIONARIES (written and read by Lucy Greeves)

"An interesting new series with an interesting name...that has to be insect of the year." THE OBSERVER

"Sprightly and intriguing series on the extraordinary histories of disease and the fantastical creatures that spread them..." METRO

THE GILDED VECTORS OF DISEASE

Series Producer & Presenter REBECCA TREMAIN
Series Co-producer & Editor ROB FALCONER
Script Consultant GARY MERRY

PRESS ENQUIRIES

Click here to request full episode preview mp3s of the radio series for press review.

Click here to preview press images (available at high resolution on request).