Trauma Africa

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7508.114

BMJ 2005;331:114 (9 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7508.114

reviews

TV

Trauma Africa

BBC 1, Thursdays at 9 pm until 21 July

Rating: $*$ ${star}$ ${star}$ ${star}$

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

According to Noam Chomsky, whom I understand ranks with KarlMarx, Shakespeare, and the Bible as one of the 10 most quotedsources in the humanities, the responsibility of intellectualsis to tell the truth and expose lies. Why not judge a televisiondocumentary using the same criteria? So how does the three partseries Trauma Africa line up?

As someone who was scared witless by a 1970s documentary onclimate change (the ice age cometh) that grimly forecast thatan ice age was imminent, only to discover years later that globaltemperatures are heading in the opposite direction, I am scepticalabout documentaries. But no problem this time. Trauma ratesin Africa are among the highest in the world. According to theWorld Health Organization, each year there are more than 200000 road traffic deaths in Africa and perhaps 20 to 30 timesas many people seriously . . . [Full text of this article]

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Ian Roberts, professor of epidemiology and population health

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Ian.Roberts@lshtm.ac.uk