Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events

Stories

  • In pictures

Why we still need quarantine

For years, quarantine has been an important measure to curb the spread of infection and avert further deaths. Discover the way it has been used in the past and why it is still necessary today.

  • In pictures

We are the survivors of slow-motion epidemics

Pioneering epidemiologist Dr Alice Stewart realised how things in our daily lives could be as deadly as any infectious disease.

  • Book extract

The science of why things spread

From deadly pandemics to viral tweets, Adam Kucharski explores what makes something contagious.

  • In pictures

AIDS awareness posters from the 1980s onwards

The AIDS public health poster campaign chose print even in the internet age and dealt with issues of identity and behaviour like never before.

All stories (17)

Images

  • Bhandardara, India: a cart bearing the belongings of the deceased victim of an infectious disease, placed in a remote spot: a custom aimed at preventing a disease epidemic. Photograph by J.B. Greaves, 1936.
  • Newly emerging infectious diseases: patients in hospital. Relief print by Eric Avery, 2000.
  • Hanley, Stoke & Fenton Joint Infectious Diseases Hospital, Staffordshire: floor plan. Photoprint, 1902.
  • Blister pack of chloroquine antimalarial tablets. Chloroquine is used to prevent and treat the infectious disease malaria. Malaria is caused by parasites (Plasmodium species) which enter the blood when inefcted mosquitoes feed. Side effects of chloroquine include vomitting, nausea and headache. Retinopathy (damage to the retina) is a rare eye condition associated with long term use over many years. Drug resistance against antimalarials is increasing.
  • University Children's Hospital, Vienna: doctors in the Heubner section for infectious diseases. Photograph, 1921.
  • University Children's Hospital, Vienna: nurses in the Heubner section for infectious diseases. Photograph, 1921.
  • Mauritius: a wooden, triangular isolation hut for plague (and other infectious diseases) quarantine. Photograph, 1910/1930.
  • People using Anios disinfectant to destroy microbes representing infectious diseases. Colour lithograph by G. de Trye-Maison, ca. 1910.
  • Seamen's Hospital for infectious diseases in Jurujuba, Rio de Janeiro; a view of the hospital building and surrounding countryside. Photograph, 1904/1911.
  • University Children's Hospital, Vienna: a nurse demonstrating surgical instruments to other nurses in the Heubner section for infectious diseases. Photograph, 1921.
All images (143)

Catalogue

All works (1.5K)