Film Analysis Essay on "And the Band Played On"

Introduction

In the film And the Band Played On, we observe how a group of doctors working on CDC use research on epidemiology to identify and understand the causal factors and mechanisms of AIDS. They do so to stop the of public health and be able to contain the epidemic and finally find a solution to stop the spread. The CDC team of doctors used surveillance data to track patients from around the world who had recently died of AIDS cases. The data were classified according to a patient's race, gender, sexual orientation, and geographic region. The cases of AIDS they track are from hospitals and health departments in urban areas of the countries of interest besides relying upon other physicians from around the world who had come across the same health cases. From the information, they gathered the team performed analytical epidemiology to try to find the possible causes, patterns and finally zero in on the common denominator increasing the risk of getting this disease.

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The epidemiological process traces AIDS to patients showing in hospitals with a complicated illness such as lymphadenothapy, Kaposi's sarcoma, and cytomegalovirus among other opportunistic infections that eventually lead to death. The team also uncovers the agent to the mysterious disease as a sexually transmitted one. The team conducted a case-control study. In the study, they used people whom they had identified as having opportunistic diseases caused by AIDS as well as conducting live interviews. This included individuals like Bobbi, the "KS poster-boy," French flight attendant as well as all the other interviewees. It was found that all could be linked to the French flight steward Gaetan Dugas whom they labeled "Patient-Zero" (Pillsbury, & Sanford, 1993). This process was used to determine that AIDS was sexually transmitted. Most of the patients associated with the infection were from the gay community, and some were IV drug users. The host to the infection was largely gay individuals. The environmental factors identified by the epidemiologist are tracked to the blood bank which only tested for hepatitis alone and sharing of drugs needles.

I would use this model of causation in my clinical practice setting to prevent the spread of infection and communicable diseases. I would begin by noting the signs and symptoms of the illness (Hawker, Begg, Reintjes, Ekdahl, Edeghere & Van Steenbergen, 2018). I will also note the number of cases reporting as having the same symptoms. Meanwhile, I would ensure that there consistency and little change in disease monitoring, reporting requirements, and laboratory diagnostics. Moreover, I would note the severity of the cases. Severe cases would most likely indicate the infection is at an advanced stage and this could have been the first patients infected (CDC, 2012). Then I would draw a case definition from the relationship between these cases. For example, how are the patients related, how far they live from each other and whether they have ever been in contact through attending a similar function or shared same facilities. The case definition will be critical in focusing on persons who truly have the disease. Just like in the movie And the Band Played On, interviews will be conducted to determine what events they attended and whether the setting of the events was well ventilated. Then educated guesses will be made from the cases, and a plausible hypothesis determined. The hypothesis will be tested corrective measures advised.

References

CDC. (2012). Outbreak Investigation: A Cheat Sheet | | Blogs | CDC. Retrieved from https://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/09/outbreak-investigation-a-cheat-sheet/

Hawker, J., Begg, N., Reintjes, R., Ekdahl, K., Edeghere, O., & Van Steenbergen, J. E. (2018). Communicable disease control and health protection handbook. John Wiley & Sons.

Pillsbury, S., & Sanford, M. (1993, September 11). And The Band Played On 1993 Full Movie[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkHuCzYhvD