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Watch a video interview with the makers of 'Bind' - News

By Lucy Goodchild
Thursday 3 December 2009

A new play exploring why people have a responsibility to be vaccinated against infectious diseases is touring around schools in London until 16 December. The play, called ‘Bind’, is the result of a collaboration between an ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ researcher and a theatre company called iceandfire.

‘Bind’, which is funded by the Wellcome Trust, aims to challenge the ideas some people have about vaccination. The play explores the idea of herd immunity: when a certain proportion of a population has been vaccinated against a disease, the people who cannot be vaccinated due to illness or problems with their immune systems are also protected. ‘Bind’ uses analogies such as bullying to suggest that inactivity – not being vaccinated, or not reporting a bully – can be harmful.

, from the Division of Epidemiology, Public Health and Primary Care at Imperial, who provided advice on the scientific issues in the play, uses mathematical models to understand how vaccination can help stop the spread of parasitic diseases like malaria.

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The two main characters in the play are 13 year old girls, looking into the past, present and future. The characters witness what happened when a mother didn’t have her child vaccinated against MMR in the past, and imagine how one of them might act as a mother in the future. The actors wind elastic around broomsticks and buckets that represent different people, showing how the people are connected and how they could pass on infections to one another.

In this video, you can watch excerpts of ‘Bind’ and find out more about the project from Dr Churcher and Sara Masters, co-Artistic Director of iceandfire theatre.

You can also listen to an interview with Dr Churcher and Sara Masters in the December podcast.

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For further information please contact:

Lucy Goodchild
Press Officer
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E-mail: lucy.goodchild@imperial.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7594 6702 or ext. 46702
Out of hours duty press officer: +44 (0)7803 886 248