Television Movie Takes Bird-Flu Threat to the Extreme
By Steve Ramirez, Las Cruces Sun-News, N.M.
May 10–A television movie Tuesday that dramatized the worst-case scenario of a possible pandemic flu outbreak could cause considerable good.
Chris Minnick, spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Health in Las Cruces, said Tuesday the underlying message of the movie “Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America” could help residents and health care professionals prepare for a potential pandemic of avian flu.
“From that movie, lessons can be learned, and that’s at the preparedness level,” Minnick said. “We know that flu pandemics are inevitable. But this is a unique situation from any of the other pandemics that have happened throughout history because we never had a chance to prepare for those.”
Tuesday’s movie on the ABC network depicted how the H5N1 virus, also known as avian flu, could spread worldwide. While fiction can mimic real life, Dr. Mack Sewell, state epidemiologist for the New Mexico Department of Health, said it is important to remember that the movie is not a factual account of a real-world event.
“It’s a bit extreme,” Sewell said of the movie. “It was based on pandemics that have occurred before. Some have been pretty severe, like the 1918 outbreak.”
But there are big differences between the fiction of Tuesday’s movie and real-world facts. There is no influenza pandemic in the world at this time, and the avian flu has not been detected in North America.
Scientists anticipate that the bird flu will be detected in birds in New Mexico within the next couple of years. But by then, the risks to the general public could be minimal.
A flu pandemic is a worldwide epidemic with a new strain of influenza never seen before in human populations. State Health Department officials said the H5N1 virus has not mutated into a form that can be spread between humans.
People who have contracted the H5N1 virus so far were infected by close contact with poultry.
“While the movie does serve to raise awareness about avian flu and pandemic flu, we hope it will inspire preparation, not panic,” Sewell said. “A number of preventative preparations are well under way. The state has had a draft plan of action for avian flu for the past 10 years, and it has been updated every fall.”
The New Mexico Department of Health is partnering with the Office of Homeland Security, state Department of Game and Fish, the New Mexico Livestock Board and the New Mexico Department of Agriculture in preparing for any possible pandemic.
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