Influenza viruses

Tuberculosis

Infectious diseases in children

Poliomyelitis

HIV/AIDS

Pandemics

Another pandemic!

Diseases have accompanied humanity and shaped our story for as long as history can remember. Sometimes gently, sometimes quite gravely, they have invaded our daily lives and forced us to take a step back to learn to re-value the most important thing – life itself and people.

The role of vaccination in ensuring the health of the population is difficult to overestimate. Many centuries-old infectious diseases were curbed in the years after World War II thanks to vaccines. In the photo, preparation of measles vaccine. THM

Medicine and science have made such a leap in development over the last century that a global pandemic caused by a viral disease is no longer something the ordinary person would think of as one of their biggest fears. Nevertheless, it came like lightning from a clear sky and took over our lives, just like dozens of other diseases have done long before COVID-19 appeared. Pandemics change our way of life, which is now in a state of emergency. Such times can cause a lot of confusion and fear.

For the last hundred years, it has been recommended to wear a mask during a pandemic of viral diseases. Masks were usually made at home using, for example, multiple layers of gauze. Poster from 1973. RR, artist: Helga Haljaste

This exhibition reminds the visitor that outbreaks of disease and health crises have always been a part of life. With infectious diseases, you can never know in advance whether the disease will have mild or more dire consequences. As a result, governments have always provided codes of conduct to help prevent the epidemic from spreading and becoming a pandemic. Estonia has been hit by several pandemics over the last hundred years. Dealing with them has required much effort. However, even more important than knowing about diseases is understanding the present time: The medicine of the twentieth and twenty-first century has developed drugs or vaccines or significantly prolonged the life of patients in the case of almost all of the diseases listed here.

Exhibition information

References