Stories from the UN Archive: Boris Karloff, leprosy and Nigeria
Actor Boris Karloff.
Famous for his position within the movie adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, Mr. Karloff additionally acted in 130 films, enjoying, as he known as it, many “spine-chilling roles”.
Stepping out of these roles and into his “real self”, Mr. Karloff labored with UN Radio in 1959 to report a function on how communities in Nigeria have been dealing with leprosy.
“If you still think that leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, leaves its victims greatly disfigured and dooms them to that condition, then you should have been with me in the rural clinic in Tiranka, in northern central Nigeria,” he mentioned, over the sound of drumming.
Today, leprosy nonetheless happens in about 120 international locations, with greater than 200,000 instances reported every year.
It’s a preventable and curable illness in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) in its world technique to eradicate it.
Efforts at the moment are ongoing in each area of the world.
Listen to The Dance of New Life right here, a part of UN News’s collection highlighting epic moments throughout the UN’s previous, cultivated from the UN Audiovisual Library’s 49,400 hours of video and 18,000 hours of audio recordings.
Leprosy prevention programmes at the moment are occurring worldwide, together with this college marketing campaign in Recife, Brazil. (file)
Stories from the UN Archive
Join us each #ThrowbackThursday for one more dive into historical past. Meanwhile, try some classics from the archives:
- Watch UN Video’s Stories from the UN Archive playlist right here
- Visit our accompanying collection right here.
- History buffs can even discover traditional UN Radio podcasts over the a long time right here
