| "Fatal Contact"- a cautionary tale of H5N1 strain |
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An alarmist ABC television network movie "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America" aired in the U.S. on Tuesday, May 9 at 8 p.m., has aroused an abdomen-clinching sense of fear among the American public.
A made-for-TV movie, "Fatal Contact" follows an outbreak of the H5N1 avian flu virus from its origins in a Hong Kong market through its alteration into a pandemic virus that becomes easily transmissible from human to human and spreads speedily around the world.
The movie, which tells a fictitious but vivid story of an avian flu pandemic threatening millions of lives, begins with an American businessman who apparently catches the mutated virus from a factory worker in China and brings with him a new strain of avian flu virus, which is communicable via human-to-human contact.
As shown in the movie, everything from handshake to cough, the germ is transmitted to others with frightening speed leaving millions of affected with the strain. As a result, millions get sick soon. As the malady spreads, so do rioting, robbery, panic and delirium. And the movie ends without emitting any hope in sight - When a vaccine is finally developed, the virus mutates again, and this time it kills everyone who gets it.
"Fatal Contact", featuring Stacy Keach, Joely Richardson, Ann Cusack and Justine Machado, is strictly fictional but is based on some facts and is "meticulously researched," viewers say.
On contrary, State health officials hope the bird flu pandemic that engulfed the country Tuesday night in a television dramatization inspires planning in Indiana rather panic.
Dr. Judith Monroe, state health commissioner, said, "This movie (was) made for entertainment. It’s not a documentary; we don’t want to see a movie made for entertainment becomes something folks begin to panic about."
Hours ahead of made-for-television movie, a new Web site-www.fluinfo.in.gov-was unveiled by the state health officials, where Hoosiers can find facts to balance Hollywood’s fiction.
No instances of bird flu have been reported in the United States so far, but officials say it is expected to arrive this year in migrating birds. Some adepts alarm the H5N1 virus, which has killed more than 100 people overseas, could mutate into a strain easily passed among humans.
As the actual H5N1 virus is trekking through 48 countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the film is an extraordinarily well-made cautionary tale of a worst-case scenario, which poses a sober "what if" question to the public.
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| deCode discovers Genetic Variant Responsible for Prostate Cancer - May 8, 2006 12:12 IST |
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Researchers at deCODE genetics along with fellow academic researchers in Iceland, the US and Sweden today reported the discovery of a common genetic variant that predisposes to prostate cancer.
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| Sanofi-Aventis named in Class Action Suit - May 6, 2006 19:47 IST |
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Sanofi-Aventis, which makes the drug Ambien has been named in a class action lawsuit by Patrick J. Kennedy who claims that the drug cause him to awake in a trance like state, and met with an accident.
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| Vaccine Makers get Federal Funding - May 6, 2006 2:21 IST |
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The US government on Thursday awarded more than US$ 1 billion ($ 1.296 billion) to five drug manufacturers that are developing technology for speedier mass production of better influenza vaccines in case of a pandemic.
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| US Elementary Schools Ban Fizzy Drinks - May 4, 2006 13:7 IST |
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Most fizzy drinks will be cast-out from thousands of primary and secondary schools by the 2009-2010 school year under a beverage-industry agreement brokered by former President Bill Clinton.
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| Britons are healthier than Americans - May 3, 2006 12:52 IST |
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Middle-aged Americans are considerably sicker than their British counterparts even though the United States spends more than twice as much per person on health care as Britain, researchers said Tuesday.
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| Woman with first Partial face transplant has full feeling - May 1, 2006 12:43 IST |
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A resident of Valenciennes, Northern France who received the world’s first partial face transplant five months ago, says she has complete feeling in the new tissue.
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