And Nachtwey's TED Prize Project Is...

After days of mystery, today the photo project that James Nachtwey produced with funding from the $100,000 TED Prize was revealed on the TED site and elsewhere. What's the "shocking and underreported global crisis" that Nachtwey's been working on?

Extreme drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB).

Nachtwey traveled to seven countries where TB has struck in a new and deadly form (Cambodia, South Africa, Swaziland, Thailand, Siberia, Lesotho, India) to document the effects of the disease. The slide show of his images on the xdrtb.org web site explains that while TB is treatable and curable, because patients are often unable to complete the course of their drug treatment, the disease has mutated into drug-resistant form. Patients with XDR-TB often die within days of their diagnosis.

In addition to a cash award, the TED prize also grants a wish to each recipient.  Nachtwey's wish was to raise awareness of the crisis and to mobilize efforts to eradicate the problem.  Screens set up in cities around the world are displaying Nachtwey's images, the TED site is displaying the work and directing people to the XDR-TB web site for more information on how to help, and Time magazine is running Nachtwey's essay "The Forgotten Plague" in an eight-page spread and on its web site.

Now that the secrecy has been lifted about the project, all that remains to be seen is how much the photographs and the publicity surrounding it affects public concern.

For more information about XDR-TB  and how to help, visit:  http://xdrtb.org