Bright sparks : Dr. Helen Power.

Ann Kelleher interviews Helen Power about her work as a medical historian. Helen, aged 26, the youngest Wellcome Research Fellow scholar ever, has been appointed to write a history of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. She researches tropical medicine in the 20th century, the spread of disease with the spread of Empire, and the effects of the decline of Empire and the growth of the third world. Europeans spread diseases like influenza or tuberculosis, which ravaged indigenous populations. However the Empire had a blind spot about the diseases it introduced and instead the British studied 'tropical diseases' like malaria, and its vectors. Helen is studying the cost of Empire relative to its benefits, but says she does not feel guilty about british imperialism. She thinks that western medicine is all pro-treatment, rather than about prevention by educating people in public health, or understanding social relationships.