Contagion is a thriller about the outbreak of a deadly virus and how our modern society attempts to deal with it as it evolves as a pandemic levels. The movie starts with the death of "Patient Zero", and it progresses as the disease spreads to a pandemic, showing what medical researchers, public health offices and government agencies do in order to identify the disease and develop a vaccine to stop its spread.
Analyzing the movie from a public health approach was very interesting; it showed how all of the areas of public health that we have studied in class relate to each other. For example, an epidemiology study is carried to trace back the origin of the outbreak, and the development of bio-weapons is thought to be linked to this origin at some point. Risk communication and policy are carried by public offices to contain the spread of the virus, while at the same time surveillance and clinical trials are being carried out in order to develop an effective vaccine.
In epidemiology, an outbreak is defined as the occurrence of infection with a particular disease in a small, localized group, such as the population of a village. The term is used more broadly to refer to an epidemic or pandemic as it spreads more rapidly. Outbreak investigation seeks for the origin of the virus in order to stop its spread, as we saw in the movie when the WHO epidemiologist is sent to the village in China. Isolation refers to the separation of cases for a disease's period of communicability in order to minimize the risk of transmission of the infectious agents to those who might be susceptible, like what they did with Mitch in the movie, being the husband of the first person who died from the virus. As the outbreak develops into an epidemic, absolute restrictions are enforced, and this is what we called a quarantine, which is what happened in the movie when a military quarantine was imposed, preventing everyone from leaving Chicago.
Public Health agencies in the movie could have been better prepared to deal with the outbreak if they had conducted a better risk communication strategy and enforced social order more effectively in order to stop the riots through which the spread of the disease actually increased. The riots could have also been avoided if the authorities had had a more effective and fair food supply systems, which could have been done by having preparedness plans in collaboration with local communities, so that the sources are large and close enough for when the emergency happens.
I could not agree more with the fact that the Public Health agencies did a poor job of maintaining social order in the movie. They really let fear take over and guide the public's actions, instead of being adequately prepared. You pose an interesting idea, that the riots would increase the spread of the disease. That is something that I did not consider, but is definitely accurate. It goes to show how important preparedness is, not only with being able to develop a vaccine, but to provide everyone with the essentials in case of isolation and quarantine.
ReplyDeleteThe movie definitely shows how social order and preparedness from the social organization side of the spectrum is possibly just as important as the science behind finding a cure during an outbreak. The riots and public chaos could have been avoided or at least lessened if public health officials had some sort of disaster plan for this kind of epidemic.
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ReplyDeleteAlthough it is a movie, Contagion seems to me to be pretty accurate in depicting how outbreaks occur and what role public health would play in investigation. In the movie, because of the virulence of the infective agent the investigating agent also contracted the infection. Isolating the infected individuals, or quarantining those with suspected infection so that their access to others was limited or prevented, would have slowed the spread, but this was not employed early on, allowing rapid spread. It be ars noting that in real life most outbreak investigations start well after the initial peak of infective activity (often after the whole outbreak is over), and the public health agent is often not in such grave danger. I guess it would not have made for as exciting a movie without this element of danger, but I’m sorry that Kate Winslet had to die.
ReplyDeleteThe outbreak definition, Isabella, is not so much about the population as it is about the fact that the # of cases exceeds the expected for a population. Quarantine is initiated with those who are believed to be exposed. This is not always everybody – you can quarantine one person who may have been exposed, but in the case of an epidemic, many people will be included in the quarantine.