Contagion?

[sweetsleep28]

has anyone seen the previews for this movie contagion, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/? according to this website its:an action-thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the cdc to deal with the outbreak. my dear boyfriend, was incredibly weirded out by this preview/concept for the movie. he says to me that's like that mrsa and vre stuff you deal with at work. what if something like that movie happened in real life. you're the one always saying that people over use antibiotics. and on and on he went. anyways. is it just me or do movies like this tend to "amp" up peoples fears of mrsa,vre,h1n1 etc. i know this type of movie is fiction. but with all of the pandemics that have been cropping up around the world, it just seems to me that something like this could lead into peoples fears if taken to seriously. thoughts?

[Idaho Murse]

Read about the flu epidemic in the early 1900's. It will blow your mind.

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

Hollywood wants to make money- accuracy is not their prime concern :) "Creative license"

The overuse of antibiotics is felt to be one of the causes of drug-resistent bacterias...people not taking their full doses of antibiotics also contribute.

MRSA is nothing new. :)

[sweetsleep28]

Hollywood wants to make money- accuracy is not their prime concern :) "Creative license"

The overuse of antibiotics is felt to be one of the causes of drug-resistent bacterias...people not taking their full doses of antibiotics also contribute.

MRSA is nothing new. :)

Oh I know that MRSA is not new. Just my mind wandering off, thinking that how people like my dear boyfriend could take something like this movie. Your statement about people not talking the full dose of ATB, thought to be one of the contributing factors to MRSA etc, is how I explanied to him about "those things I deal with at work."

[laughing weasel]

Diseases have always been really dangerous for extremely short periods for first exposure. Look at pt zero mortality for Ebola. Viruses adapt quickly and if you kill your host to fast the virus dies out. Washing hands stops most epidemics "cold". That is why no nation state wants to waste good money developing killer plagues. They only kill the placid population that you need later not very effective against troops and police. The Zombie apocalypse is fun to talk about but very unlikely scenario. Go ahead and shake someones hand it wont kill you(most likely).

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

Diseases have always been really dangerous for extremely short periods for first exposure. Look at pt zero mortality for Ebola. Viruses adapt quickly and if you kill your host to fast the virus dies out. Washing hands stops most epidemics "cold". That is why no nation state wants to waste good money developing killer plagues. They only kill the placid population that you need later not very effective against troops and police. The Zombie apocalypse is fun to talk about but very unlikely scenario. Go ahead and shake someones hand it wont kill you(most likely).

OK- What????

HIV (new strains not reacting to some antiretrovirals), HepC, smallpox, dengue, JCD, Hanta, legionaires, Coccydiomycosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and on and on..... these may not be "movie worthy", but they still can kill people many years after being identified. The "placid" folks aren't the only ones who are effected (what microbiology book did that come from? :)). Washing hands is good- but doesn't stop epidemics "cold"- by the time an outbreak is identified, the exposure has already been significant. SO- if we don't want viruses to adapt- the host needs to die? The pharmaceutical companies will "love" that concept!! Save the planet- kill the people!!!

[gymnut]

I kind of understand what Laughing Weasel is saying...maybe...

It was touched on in this book I'm reading called Survival of the Sickest. There's one chapter about how viruses adapt in order to spread themselves and can manipulate their hosts. The author talks about malaria and how that virus needs it's host to pretty much get horribly sick and lie there so the mosquitoes can come and feed off them and spread the virus around some more. I guess that's what was meant by being placid?

Obviously that's a gross over simplification but it's 2am and I had a horrible day. I'm sure someone who's also read the book or something like it can tackle the subject better.

[GilaRRT]

Hollywood wants to make money- accuracy is not their prime concern :) "Creative license"

The overuse of antibiotics is felt to be one of the causes of drug-resistent bacterias...people not taking their full doses of antibiotics also contribute.

MRSA is nothing new. :)

This movie is about a virus however. While overdramatised I'm sure, the basic premise may be somewhat valid. Others have mentioned the great flu incidents and it's not outside the realm of reason to ponder the possibility of another such scenario occurring.

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

This movie is about a virus however. While overdramatised I'm sure, the basic premise may be somewhat valid. Others have mentioned the great flu incidents and it's not outside the realm of reason to ponder the possibility of another such scenario occurring.

Right- OP also mentioned MRSA, so was replying to bugs in general :)

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

That's why it will probably be a successful movie. Because people are already worried about epidemics, so they will go see the movie to see what could happen if there were a real outbreak.

The biggest difference between the movie and real life is that, in the movie, this virus/bacteria kills all people who contact it quickly. In real life, most people with healthy immune systems can fight off a bug or be maintained on medical support for awhile.

Who knows, maybe it will encourage people to be a little more germ conscious.

And yes, I'll probably go see the movie.

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

I havent' seen the trailers- and it doesn't sound like a movie I'd see....I think about sarin gas, terrorist delivery systems, etc ... doesn't cost a cent to watch the news. :)

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Saw the trailer, it's that movie Outbreak, just in 3D. I'm waiting for it to have aromavision like Spy Kids. What good is a movie about disease if it doesn't stink too?