At a Theater Near You… "Contagion" Reminds Us to Wash our Hands
/A movie called Contagion that opened last week supposes the worldwide spread of a new and deadly virus that also infects society with crippling anxiety and panic.
Director Steven Soderbergh has said the film’s plausibility is what makes it disturbing. The production employed infectious disease and public health experts from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control to verify that the horrors portrayed on screen were possible.
Our County’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Wilma Wooten, hasn’t seen the film yet. But its premise— that a virus previously only found in animals jumps to a person, spreads human to human, and, with the help of international travel, nation to nation, infecting and killing thousands or even millions worldwide before a vaccine is developed…
“Certainly it’s possible,” Dr. Wooten says.
Now that is disturbing.
Still, our top County physician thinks a film dramatizing a worst-case-scenario pandemic may start some conversations about how we all share responsibility for preventing infectious disease, particularly in the case of an emerging disease, when authorities have no vaccines to offer the public.
“There is no rapid way to develop a vaccine,” says Wooten. “At first, the most important steps to combating an epidemic are preventative measures, washing your hands regularly, keeping your area clean, staying home when you’re sick.”
The film plays up the mundane and microscopic pathway of disease. In one scene, a researcher glances around a restaurant and spots a dozen places the virus could infect a patron, including a drinking glass, a cook handling food, a fork and a coughing mouth. It’s an unsettling, but educational, sequence.
And it certainly supports some of our Public Health Services most oft-repeated advice: wash your hands frequently; cover your cough.
“You are going to have people who see this and get more vigilant about protecting themselves from infection,” says Wooten of the film.
Fortunately, the film is fictional, and in modern times our community hasn’t had to deal with a global infectious disease that spreads, kills and defies containment on the scale of the virus in Contagion.
Then again, in spring 2009 when the novel H1N1 influenza virus appeared in San Diego County, there were certainly fears it could be quite deadly and pervasive—we just didn’t know at first. For many County employees who played a role in responding to that pandemic, it will be interesting to reflect on what we experienced here and its parallels to the response of the government, medical community and public depicted in Contagion.
In real life, how did we even realize we had a new flu on our hands? Well, County Public Health Services relies on sentinel clinics around the region that routinely send us lab samples from people who come in with symptoms, so we can monitor the infectious agents circulating in the community. In late March 2009, we received a few samples that we couldn’t type. According to our protocol, these were sent to the Centers for Disease Control. In April, the CDC had identified the new H1N1 strain in our samples, and in one case from Imperial County.
Surveillance was stepped up around the nation, but in San Diego County and elsewhere it soon became clear by examining flu data and samples that the new disease was already widespread. It was too late to contain it to a few cases. Now its spread could only be lessened. This was a time of unease and uncertainly.
While researchers worked on developing an effective vaccine, our public health team implemented its plan for mitigating an epidemic.
Public health investigators tracked closely the cases of people who were hospitalized or who died after getting H1N1. In some cases, these patients’ close contacts were given anti-viral medication to lessen their symptoms.
Our health officials took part in regular conference calls with the Centers for Disease Control to contribute to and benefit from the collective understanding of the new virus.
By the time a vaccine had been developed and produced in October, the pandemic flu was slowing in our region. And though there were deaths, the vast majority of people who got sick recovered. We held press conferences and events urging vaccination for H1N1 flu and regular seasonal flu.
These days, the H1N1 vaccine is part of the regular seasonal flu vaccine dose. This year, you can do your part by getting a flu vaccine, staying home when sick, covering your cough and washing your hands frequently.
The H1N1 pandemic showed that our County is prepared for a novel virus, and that, if we should see another, we will all be called upon to play our part in preventing its spread. We were fortunate not to have a Contagion-style killer on our hands.
The County’s response to the H1N1 novel virus was illustrative of how we’re ready with plans, protocols and personnel to deal with the unknown.
That thought should make the movie Contagion just a little less scary.
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