ST LOUIS- At the newly renovated Museum of Highly Infectious Diseases, schoolchildren touring the facility Friday were gleefully unaware of the center's funding problems. Museum officials fear the scene of smiling eight year-old Jessica Albach playfully handling a magnified model of a smallpox virus could soon be a thing of the past.
The 20,000 square foot facility reopened last summer amid much fanfare, but now with state and municipal budgets stretched to the breaking point, the lack of public and private funding threatens to make it another victim of the ongoing financial crisis.
The facility features a new wing called "Plague Through the Ages". Numerous artifacts from as distant as the 14th century show the effects of bubonic menace on generations of citizenry. One wood carving depicts ignorant peasants enjoying a traditional 'rat race' as dying townsfolk can be seen piled waist-high in the background awaiting the weekly village burning.
One of the children's favorite pavilions is named "Ebola: Nature's Cruel Joke", which displays a colorful, albeit grisly series of wall-sized images documenting the decline of a cartoon victim, progressing from newly infected, to the first appearance of bulbous boils, and ending with the final, hideous expiration. Another exhibit documents Polio's mark on mankind.
"Should we not honor the ailment that felled one of our most beloved Presidents?" asked museum spokesman Les Avery. "Polio's role in history should secure it a permanent place in our culture." Mr. Avery is part of a movement in the medical community championing polio to be designated an endangered species. "Just because it's not as cuddly as a Panda doesn't make Poliomyelitis any less deserving of our protection" said Avery, referring to the virus' scientific designation.
The final part of the tour allows visitors to don Level-A hazmat suits to handle petri dishes of living specimens and view them through an electron microscope. Before the budget cuts, a few lucky attendees were occasionally invited to infect one of the spider monkeys used by the center for vaccine research.
Such hands-on learning exercises could soon become a thing of the past. "I appreciate the need to trim in tight budget years" admitted Mr. Avery. "But people need to realize that every penny lost has a real-world effect. We've had to cut back on inspections of the hazmat suits from twice daily to twice monthly. Twice daily was probably overkill, but it's probably better to be safe than sorry."
The museum is open 10-5 Monday through Saturday, closed on Sundays. Visitors are advised to bring a change of clothes as attendees' garments are urged to be burned as a standard precaution.
No comments:
Post a Comment