The movie ‘Contagion’ was released in 2011 depicting the dramatization of a world-wide pandemic of a virus strain killing millions of people in just a matter of months. The movie brought memories as to how global pandemics such as the swine flu were handled a few years back. The movie demonstrated how health professionals would react to a large-scale spread of an unknown virus. During the movie, several epidemiological concepts were addressed. The influential work of epidemiologists and the on-site ground work they have to go through in order to achieve their goal was perceived to be accurate throughout the movie. Some general known concepts they were able to explain were the importance of rates, epidemiological studies, prevention and control …show more content…
The importance of rates is crucial to epidemiologists. It essentially shows how the incidence rate of and prevalence rate of the infection have happened. During the movie, Dr. Cheever would gather data to know how many people were being infected during a set of time, asking for the incident rate. This would signal how fast the virus was spreading and how many people were becoming infected, and dying as well, giving the prevalence rate of the …show more content…
Cheever, along with other health agencies and governments, place preventative measures in order to stop the spread of the disease. That is why the concept of prevention and control of Diseases and Other Health-Related Conditions was crucial to the plot of the movie. According to our book, “the goals of epidemiology are to prevent, control, and… eradicate and diseases and injuries. Dr. Cheever was the first person in the movie to incite some form of regulation. We see it when he, Dr. Cheever, asks Dr. Hextall, who is a scientists at the CDC, to control the virus by only granting access to government official agencies to test and handle the virus. Throughout the movie more severe forms of prevention were taken. They started to close down schools and public buildings, advising for people to stay home and not go out until a vaccine was created for the virus. It got to the point where the U.S. government had the city of Chicago in quarantine. The government was now intervening to control the spread of the disease. Ultimately, creating a vaccine for the virus thanks to Dr.
An emerging diseases class must also anticipate what the potential issues are that may halt the eradication process. An example of a problem is when Foege had to figure out what to do when faced with a low supply of the vaccine. There were two main choices, try and target the places where the outbreak occurred, or dilute the vaccine and give it to everyone. Each had their own downside however. If Foege and his team targeted the wrong places then the virus would still spread and inevitably infect everyone in the area and wreak havoc on the region since all of the vaccine would be gone. The other option had an equally catastrophic down side. If the vaccine was too diluted and did not take then the virus could become active and those inoculated would most likely become infected with vaccine-borne smallpox. To make a long story short, the first option was chosen and actually lead to the “Surveillance and Containment” method. This method entailed surveying the population for anyone who could have the outbreak and then making sure to contain any potential outbreak from occurring. This idea of identifying the problems that are being faced and weighing the options against each other is an important concept to understand in an emerging diseases class. In an eradication effort Foege lets us know
Many states and colonies across the globe issued detailed sets of directives to their residents on what exactly they should do if they come into contact with the illness. One such example is the directive issued by T.W.H. Holmes, the Secretary of the Victoria Board of Public Health in Australia. The directive details the symptoms, complications, treatment, and prevention of the disease. Something very common during the outbreak of any pandemic is the use of quarantines to separate the sick and the healthy. In fact, that is the first order for prevention of disease in T.W.H. Holme...
Nayan Shah is a leading expert in Asian American studies and serves as professor at the University of California. His work, Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown explores how race, citizenship, and public health combined to illustrate the differences between the culture of Chinese immigrants and white norms in public-health knowledge and policy in San Francisco. Shah discusses how this knowledge impacted social lives, politics, and cultural expression. Contagious Divides investigates what it meant to be a citizen of Chinese race in nineteenth and twentieth-century San Francisco.
...in the fields of both science and medicine, future epidemics of any disease can be handled better. When a lethal disease begins to rampage a population, research on similar epidemics can help the world contain, cure, and prevent the disease to protect the world and its population.
The viruses are spread in many different ways in the novel, but all are due to human mistakes. One of the most common forms of errors found in the medical field is the recycling of soiled equipment. The repeated use of dirty medical equipment is found commonly in the poor regions of the world where resources are limited and fundings are bound. This is an example of the errors the human race performs that lead to disaster.
Since Plagues and Peoples covers several subjects of knowledge, he helps the reader understand key concepts by fully explaining parasitism and its dependence on humans and animals. People in the field of history, which make up a majority of this books audience, would need more insight into epidemiology to grasp its key concepts. It would not be likely for a historian to be knowledgeable in a branch of medical science that deals with the incidence, distribution, and control of disease in populations.
Loo, Yueh-Ming and Michael Gale, Jr. “Influenza: Fatal Immunity and the 1918 Virus.” Nature 445 (2007): 267-268. 23 July. 2008 .
The Government and Politicians didn’t really care. Most of them ignore it and waited for the last minute. Others, like the President Ronald Regan spent more money on war supplies and other stuff, than helping the CDC find a cure. They were only given a certain limited space, no money, and outdated equipment.
First off, Young establishes how the epidemic is still such a huge concern in their society by stating, “The Program is the reason the epidemic is spreading. The pressure, the attention--it’s causing a whole new outbreak it hopes to contain by resetting the world. The Program is breeding suicide” (Young 319). The whole reason for the horrifying epidemic is because The Program is trying to take over the thoughts of everyone in the world and create the people they can control.
The human population has a high susceptibility to the contraction of new diseases and outbreaks of these diseases are of high risk. Diseases in recent times that have broken out into the human population are the H7N9 flu strain and SARS. Despite the risk, outbreaks like H7N9 and SARS have been controlled due to epidemiology and other disease control methods. Outbreaks of disease are not uncommon to the human population as they move to new areas around the world with foreign diseases that the native residents would have developed a resistance to.
...ary 2014)”. The Ebola epidemic helps remind the U.S. That other nations are there to work with them, and unite to prevent a rapid growing disease. CDC partners with programs from other nations, such as the Global Disease Detection Centers, and the Field Epidemiology Training Program, which work to stop the Ebola virus. Information systems will grow stronger, more partnerships dedicated to stopping outbreaks will be formed and laboratory security will also grow. The writer of the paper cannot agree more to this.
The movie Outbreak is a wonderful portrayal of how the Chain of Infection works in an epidemic and pandemic outbreak of a disease. The shows how quickly the disease gained power and was responsible for sickness and death in a small community. Pathogens that invade the body have 5 requirements for a successful invasion on their host whether it is a human or animal. I will further review how the movie successfully reflects the reservoir/host, portal of exit, mode of transmission, portal of entry and susceptible host to provide the perfect Outbreak of the disease. The same model still used today in science.
Imagine going to bed one night and everything in your world is perfect and normal; you wake up the next morning and suddenly the world is horrible and everyone is getting sick and dying. How would you feel? That’s how Contagion is. When Mitch Emhoff’s wife comes from Hong Kong and she is very sick. She ends up dying within the first ten minutes of the movie. That’s what makes Contagion different than all of the other mass outbreak stories is that the main character is killed off within minutes. Contagion is a movie for the young and the old. It is the only movie out here that perfectly describes how the world would react to an outbreak of this kind. Contagion is an extraordinary film with a lovely plot, terrific acting and out of this world
During the year 1866 and 1869 two acts known as the contagious acts were passed by the british parliament. The acts were put in place to avoid venereal disease in the armed forces. These law were enforced in the towns where armed forces were permanently stationed. It allowed police to arrest any woman within the district who he thinks is a prostitute. In 1870 Harriet Martineau, Florence Nightingale with many others published an article called “The Ladies Petition 1870”. The article address the problems with the contagious disease acts and appeals to remove the law, stating it takes away women’s freedom. John Stuart Mill in his testimony before the house of lords in 1871 on the contagious acts argues with the committee members to abolish the law or fix it. He thinks it takes away women's liberty, and is
mentioned can be surfaced. The film Contagion offers a progressive look at how society crumbles and reveals how people will truly act and feel in a situation that is life threatening (I.e. fear/ flight or fight). From the beginning of the film and ultimately towards the end you can clearly see how progressive the virus not only destroys our biology but also our society. Before the main sickness reaches across the world, we will see that the film makes us realize that this is our modern world and fully incorporates places across the world from United States to Hong Kong.