Outbreak Essay
Outbreak is a 1995 American medical disaster film directed by Wolfgang Petersen and was
based on the nonfiction book The Hot Zone” that was written by Richard Preston.
The movie “Outbreak” focuses on a non-fictional virus which is almost identical to Ebola and
Lassa that was discovered on 1969 in West Africa. The catastrophic virus in the movie was
called Motaba virus, which originated in Zaire. The Motaba virus is a hemorrhagic virus or in
medical terms it is a VHF that stand for “Viral Hemorrhagic Fever”. It has a 100% mortality
rate, which has a common feature, such us affecting many organs, damaging the blood vessels,
and it can affect the body's ability to regulate itself. Having said that, this virus can cause intense
fever and severe bleeding of internal and external organs of the infected individual. Motaba virus
was identified as waterborne and bloodborne, or it can be transmitted through transportation of
blood and water. But it mutates and become airborne after a while.
The movie started on the year 1967, where in there was two U.S. Generals discovered the disease
in an army camp that was designated in African jungle. But in order to maintain the virus as a
possible biological weapon in the future. Later on, after taking blood samples from the dying
infected soldiers, the U.S. Generals decided to fuel bomb the camp to annihilate the virus.
Meanwhile, after twenty-eight years, in the year 1995, the Motaba virus returns in the same
place, which is the Zaire river in Africa. A virologist named Colonel Sam Daniel, which is the
main character of the movie was sent to Zaire with his team, in order to investigate the outbreak.
Unfortunately, the host of the virus which is white-headed capuchin monkey was transported
from Africa to America in order to bring in a biological testing facility but have been smuggled
by someone while on the process of transportation. The outbreak all started when the monkey
bitten the smuggler, and suddenly it became chain reaction like, wherein through the means of
the factors such as being waterborne and bloodborne, the virus easily transferred from one
person to another. Just like the scenario in the cinema, wherein someone that was infected by the
virus cough, so that the persons near the victim became also infected by the virus. It started from
one victim, then it multiplies continuously until the entire city undergoes to a quarantine.
Twenty-five years later after the release of the movie “Outbreak”. Globe lockdown was
happening in the present day due to deadly “Corona virus 2019 or known as Covid-19
pandemic”. This devastating virus was originated in Wuhan China in December 2019, it can
cause complication including pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. And just like
in the movie this virus multiplies in exponential way, and it is waterborne or can be transmitted
through water. As of today, there are more than 3.66 million cases of COVID-19 have been
reported in over 187 countries all over the world, resulting in more than 257,000 fatalities. While
more than 1.19 million people have recovered. Meanwhile, up until now in the Philippines there
are more than 10,000 victims of the covid-19 which I can say it is very alarming specifically to
us Filipinos, because first of all our government doesn’t have enough budget and capability to
create a concrete plan in this kind of pandemic.
