Disease and pandemics are scary. As the world is shaking with the news of a new corona virus outbreak in China it is informative to take a look into gear used by “the disease detectives” ie. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The movie Contagion (2011) has done a great job for educating public by depicting a rather probable scenario of a viral outbreak largely based on the SARS outbreak of 2003. The hugely successful BBC documentary The Hidden Life of Cell also does a great job visualizing steps of an adenovirus infection at molecular scale.
We do not know when the next disease will strike but epidemiologists try their best to predict an outbreak. A citizen science project called Flu Near You aims to do just that. More over, it also will try to test how effective flu vaccines are. Don’t forget to get your flu shot.
Speedy response is crucial in an outbreak. Here in this video Center for Disease Control workers show the gear they use in the field. These are the highly trained folks that brave highly dangerous conditions to collect samples for disease and pathogen identification. The following video also makes us appreciate efforts and organizational skills of the Epidemic Intelligence Service.
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