Search

The article discusses outbreak narratives. It describes outbreak narrative that starts with identifying the emerging infection and traces a process from disease appearance to enclosure. Ebola outbreaks, avian influenza threats, and SARS are cited as examples of recent outbreak narrative. It focuses on AIDS-era contagion narratives. Particular attention is given to a nonfiction narrative "The Hot Zone," by Richard Preston in 1994 and the film "Outbreak," by Wolfgang Petersen in 1995 that both function as critical and touchstones in the contemporary-AIDS era outbreak narrative. Moreover, it states that epidemiological containment of outbreak narrative insists that the nation-state's systems of surveillance and intervention will protect citizenry.