Is patient Zero really a Holly Wood creation?
What does Contagion (2011) teach us about patient zero and the difference between treatment and prevention?
October 25, 2022
By: Haniya Arif Khan
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Fear vs Virus Mev-1
Which spreads faster? Source: https://www.un.org/pt/ccoi/contagion |
Patient Zero isn’t just a Hollywood creation.
Patient zero is not some superficial thing, it is real in the medical community and it refers to the first person that is infected by the virus where an outbreak has occurred. Patient zero is the source! This is important as identifying the origin of a disease helps scientists understand and prevent future pandemics. In the movie Contagion, the primary recorded victim was a woman called Beth Emhoff who is first seen coughing at the airport but with time her condition worsens as she starts to have a seizure and has to go to the hospital where she passes away on day 4. Thus, identifying the patient zero in a pandemic is critical not only to prevent future outbreaks but also to identify what the source of the infection is.
Do we need strong deductive skills to identify Patient Zero?
Yes, figuring out who patient zero requires a great deal of detective work where health experts and scientists have to do intense field work which involves mapping the transmission of a virus. Contact tracing comes into play here which involves a long procedure where they search for everyone who came into contact with the sick patient (shown in the figure below). Wow, that’s a lot of work! However, this work has to be done because it gives epidemiologist’s insight into the nature of first transmissions into a population and the route of transmission. It is helpful to know how a virus travels through a population as it’s a way to classify the disease as airborne or food-borne and then using this information to work on a vaccine.
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Contact Tracing between different individuals
A more targeted approach introduced by the World Health Organization during the spread of small pox was ring vaccination which was a form of contact tracing. Health experts would isolate the individual with the disease and vaccinate the people who came in contact with them and then whoever came into contact with those people forming a ring. This creates a buffer of immunity between the infection and the population. It worked and was pretty successful all around the world.
In all honesty, looking for Patient Zero can be difficult and problematic, because there’s really no way to actually observe the moment when patient zero becomes Patient Zero. However, as the world progress and technological advancements have increased, health experts are able to use computer simulations along with genetic tracking to catch the source aka Patient Zero who drive the epidemic and in turn put a stop to a disease before it spreads further.
Treatment Vs Prevention
Do these two mean the same thing?
Source: https://www.dreamstime.com/prevention-vs-treatment-traffic-sign-two-options-preventive-prior-action-against-posterior-solution-resolution-health-image184611793
These two terms are often confused as the same by many individuals. However, they are not the same at all. Treatment may occur through medicine and drugs in order to reduce the effects of a disease or to kill the cause of the disease. Thus, treatment decreases the symptoms caused by the disease. On the other hand, prevention of a disease is either general or specific where general prevention may be done through providing safe and clean-living conditions to prevent exposure of diseases or it may be specific which is done through vaccination. See, they are very different from each other!! Therefore, preventative healthcare keeps individuals healthy and treatment caters to a specific disease. Thus, it is safe to say that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Coming back to the movie Contagion, the virus that was present in the movie was MEV-1 and its mode of transmission was pretty similar to that of Covid-19. It spread from person to person through airborne droplets. These were produced by sneezes, coughs and through viruses deposited on fomites where fomites are materials which may carry the infection like in the movie, we saw the doorknob and peanuts. Moreover, the mortality rate of this virus was higher than Covid-19’s and was about 25%. Consequently, it is key to track down Patient Zero because without the source not only is it difficult to contain the spread of the virus but also is key in helping health experts develop a vaccine to prevent a large-scale pandemic.
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A virus that is so small can cause so much havoc in the world? Source: https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/how-do-you-slow-a-pandemic-420252/ |
In conclusion, pandemics as a whole are really scary and can change our world completely. Not only do they cause stress, tension and havoc everywhere but we also lose lots of lives. To minimize the loss of lives, we now know the importance of tracking down patient zero so that we can stop the infection spreading further. Contact tracing is another important step as the identified individuals should isolate and be told to quarantine to contain the spread of the disease. Moreover, it is crucial to know and realise that even in a technologically advanced, fast paced world like today, it still takes time to create a vaccine as a lot of research and testing goes into it and something as serious as a vaccine should never be rushed because millions of lives depend on it.
References
Feng, Maohui, et al. “Occupational Characteristics and Management Measures of Sporadic COVID-19 Outbreaks from June 2020 to January 2021 in China: The Importance of Tracking down ‘Patient Zero.’” Frontiers in Public Health, Frontiers Media S.A., 30 Apr. 2021, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8119752/
Preeja, R. P., et al. “Importance of Zero Patient in Pandemics.” Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, 1 Jan. 1970, https://search.bvsalud.org/global-literature-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov/resource/en/covidwho-1111019
Vox. “Can we get rid of Covid-19 altogether? ” YouTube 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34oI0yd5YUc
Preeja, R. P., et al. “Importance of Zero Patient in Pandemics.” Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, 1 Jan. 1970, https://search.bvsalud.org/global-literature-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov/resource/en/covidwho-1111019
“Revisiting ‘Contagion’ during a Real Pandemic.” James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, 10 Apr. 2020, https://nonproliferation.org/revisiting-contagion-during-a-real-pandemic/
Treatment and Prevention of Diseases - TOPPR-Guides. https://www.toppr.com/guides/biology/why-do-we-fall-ill/treatment-and-prevention-of-diseases/
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