Contagion

In the movie Contagion, the main character, Beth Emhoff, returns from a business trip from Hong Kong and almost immediately drops dead from what the physicians in the movie believe was the bird flu virus. Before her death, she also infects her son who later dies in that same day. Since Beth traveled back from China, she infected everyone who came in contact with her on her travels. The flu virus became a quickly spreading pandemic, resulting in the closings of schools, parks, airports, and most public establishments.

I’ve seen Contagion twice now and after both times I became more conscious of what I touch and how many times I wipe my nose or rub my eyes. Although this movie wasn’t a perfect plot setup, they do a good job making the viewers aware of the germs all around them.

           

            This movie was a perfect example of an outbreak, which is a sudden start of something unwelcome like a disease. Following the outbreak of the bird flu, disease investigators came in a tried to identify the point where the outbreak started, map out the spread, and then focus on dealing with the problem. In the movie, that was Kate Winslet’s character’s job. The difference between isolation and quarantine is when you isolate someone you separate the ill persons who have a disease or sickness from those who are healthy. Quarantine is used to separate well persons who may have been exposed to a communicable disease to see if they become ill. It’s basically a test to see if the person is immune.

            In the movie, The American CDC and the World Health Organization were not prepared for such an outbreak and their reaction rates resulted in a pandemic. A few key ideas I think would help with national and international preparedness is being able to share information. Communication with the public would help inform the citizens to take precautionary action. Another way to help plan would be warnings, via the media, that are unambiguous and consistent by giving specific information about who could potentially be at risk and what one can do to prevent them from catching anything. Also, if evacuations are needed, they should be ordered in terms of agencies. These are only a few of things that could help with emergency preparedness, but these three examples are some important factors that should be taken accounted for.