Photog Anne Geddes offers ‘care for the world’s children’
Famed photographer Anne Geddes, known for her adorable portraits infants in whimsical settings, teams up with GlaxoSmithKline to highlight the lives of 15 powerful survivors of meningococcal disease, a rare and life-threatening illness
Anne Geddes has revolutionized photography with her images portraying babies and motherhood, but now she is using her talent as a visual storyteller to raise awareness about meningococcal meningitis. She teamed up with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to hammer home the importance of vaccinating children against this preventable and often deadly disease by publishing a book called “Protecting Our Tomorrows: Portraits of Meningococcal Disease.”
The book of photographs depicts 15 survivors, many of which have lost limbs from the illness.
“I wanted to portray them as beautiful young people, which is what they are” Geddes told FoxNews.com adding, “the loss of limbs shouldn’t have to define them.”
Geddes hopes that viewers’ reaction will be to first notice the beauty of the children and then to ask themselves, “what happened?”
GSK researcher and pediatrician Leonard Friedland told FoxNews.com that meningococcal meningitis is caused by five types of a bacteria called neisseria meningitidis – A, C, W, Y and B.
Since 2005 there have been vaccines recommended for A,C, W and Y. Recently, there have been two new vaccines licensed by the FDA to cover the fifth strain - type B. The CDC is currently considering how they are going to be used.
A new Harris poll of U.S. parents suggests that they need to speak to their pediatricians to find the best way to protect their children from the disease. The poll says that 83 percent of parents want their children to be vaccinated against all groups of meningococcal disease, while 88 percent of the parents of kids who are vaccinated don’t know which group or groups they are protected against.
“It’s really important that parents go and speak to their doctors, understand what the options are, make sure that their children are up-to-date with the meningococcal vaccines that are available.” Friedland told FoxNews.com
Parents should also be familiar with the disease and what to look out for. Friedland said that the common symptoms include headaches, fevers and in some cases a stiff neck. A purple rash can develop and within hours you can end up in the hospital. The disease has a mortality rate of 12-15 percent and affects infants as well as teens and young adults.
“Those who are lucky enough to survive can end up with serious complication. That can end up being life-long skin scarring, limb amputations, neurological disorders and the thing about this is it unpredictable,” Friedland said.
As previously stated, the Harris poll shows that the disease is shrouded in some uncertainty. This is where GSK hopes that Anne Geddes’ photographs can put a face to the disease. She hopes that the book can promote some change, especially in light of the anti-vaccine movement.
“All I can say to people who are anti-vaccination or are nervous about vaccination is to go look at this series of images and then see how you feel about it because meningococcal disease is absolutely preventable,” Geddes said.
One of the images Geddes is referencing is the cover of the book which depicts a set of twins. One of the twins suffered through the disease and lost all of her limbs, the other remained healthy.
“These families and the children and young people in this series has put themselves forward to demonstrate the dangers of the disease and it’s so random,” Geddes said.
For more information about the project click here.
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