By Julia Teeluck

Imagine a world gone mad – infected with fear – as a fatal airborne virus spreads rapidly from continent to continent killing those infected within days. This is the premise of Steven Soderbergh’s medical thriller, Contagion. In the film, a series of plotlines are intertwined, and the viewer follows several characters as they deal with the outbreak.

Fascination with such disasters may be traced to recent events such as SARS and H1N1. “SARS in 2003 created a global interest in the effect of infectious disease. What happened now is that rather than societies being looked at as static, we began to understand that societies are globalized and mobile,” says Roger Keil, Professor and Director, The City Institute at York University. Keil co-edited a book, Networked Disease: Emerging Infections in the Global City, which focuses on how pathogens interact with economic, political and social factors. Keil says societies are affected by infectious disease in a variety of unpredictable ways, due to increase in transportation, communication, and economic and human exchange. The interconnected nature of the new world has created a playground for the easy spread of infectious disease.

While Contagion shows how panicked and unravelled a society can become in the face of an infectious disease, Keil says the film is realistic and not sensationalist. “The effects on society were described fairly intimately and broadly at the same time - intimately because you see the unravelling of very personal and intimate relationships. At the same time, you get a very good idea of the overall effect of such a disease on the structure and institutions of a society,” says Keil.

The film may leave the viewer wondering whether the world is prepared to handle another pandemic. Canada is equipped with VIDO-InterVac (the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization and International Vaccine Centre), a research institute located on the University of Saskatchewan campus that focuses on investigating infectious diseases and developing methods to control them.

“The infrastructure provided by VIDO-InterVac will allow our scientists to be at the forefront of addressing the most challenging infectious diseases. In fact, the containment level three features of InterVac, referred to as BSL3 in the movie, provide us with the capacity to research pandemic threats, such as the 2009 H1N1 outbreak,” says Dr. Paul Hodgson, Associate Director, Business Development, at VIDO-InterVac.

Hodgson points out that in Canada, the first point of contact for an outbreak such as the one in Contagion, would be the National Microbiology Laboratory – Canada’s equivalent of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention - located in Winnipeg.

“VIDO-InterVac has strong collaborative relationships with the National Microbiology Laboratory, and we could play a primary role in research and vaccine development of a deadly outbreak in Canada depending on the capacity required,” says Hodgson.

When asked if films, such as Contagion, that magnify the worst-case scenario are harmful to the centre’s efforts, Hodgson says he believes these types of films support the work done at VIDO-InterVac. “Our vision statement is, ‘Protecting the world from infectious disease.’ They show the positive role that containment facilities like InterVac would play in the emergence of a disease such as the one occurring in Contagion.”

Hodgson says there are positive and negative aspects to the film depending on the viewer’s interpretation. Contagion creates awareness about infectious disease, what scientists and physicians are doing to prevent them and how easily infectious diseases can spread. However, the film can create some fear mongering and shows what mob mentality to stressful situations is capable of doing.