HOOKWORM AND BAREFOOT YOUTH A chronic anaemia widespread among the poor whites in parts of the American South convinced Charles Stiles, an obscure 25-year-old zoologist, that it was cau...Image by (LEFT) CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES TOPICAL PRESS AGENCY / GETTY IMAGES
FLU AND THE SISTERS The influenza virus struck in 1918, first observed in Europe and the USA before swiftly spreading around the world. It would infect an estimated 500 million people w...Image by UNDERWOOD ARCHIVES / GETTY IMAGES
DIABETES AND A SYMBOLIC DOLLAR Though diabetes is one of the first human diseases on record and had been known for over 3,000 years, its exact nature had been a mystery. Canadian physic...Image by (LEFT) HULTON ARCHIVE / GETTY IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK
HIV AND AN UNTREATABLE COUGH In the early 80s, reports began to surface of an untreatable pneumonia among previously healthy men in the gay community, foxing researchers. It would be ye...Image by MICHAEL ABRAMSON / THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION VIA GETTY IMAGES / GETTY IMAGES
POLIO AND LOOSE DIMES US President Franklin D Roosevelt (right) was 39 when he contracted polio and was never able to walk again on his own. This led him to found the National Foundatio...Image by (LEFT) THE DENVER POST VIA GETTY IMAGES GEORGE RINHART / CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES
CANCER AND A LONG RUN Athlete Terry Fox (left) had a vision: A world without cancer. After a bone cancer diagnosis required the amputation of his right leg, 21-year-old Fox embarked on ...Image by (LEFT) BORIS SPREMO / TORONTO STAR VIA GETTY IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK
FAMINE AND A CONCERT TICKET When the heartbreaking images of famine victims in Ethiopia were brought to the attention of the West by a BBC television report in 1984, the images of starv...Image by NEIL LEIFER / SPORTS ILLUSTRATED VIA GETTY IMAGES / GETTY IMAGES
TUBERCULOSIS AND A GIANT RAT Bart Weetjens, a Belgian product designer, had kept rodents as a child, and known their acute sense of smell, intelligence and ability to learn. His NGO Apo...Image by YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
EBOLA AND A PHONE CONNECTION When the Ebola virus exploded across West Africa in 2014, people around the world made relief donations using their mobile phones, establishing crowdfunding...Image by JOHN MOORE / GETTY IMAGES
MALARIA AND A MODIFIED MOSQUITO Philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates have committed more than $2.9 billion in grants to combat malaria, their top priority. Their foundation recently p...Image by JUDA NGWENYA / REUTERS
