The Painted Veil Public Health

The Painted Veil: A Public Health Perspective

The painted veil was a romantic drama, set in and environment of disease in public health. Of the main characters, Walter Fane and his role as a bacteriologist gave the biggest connection within the movie to public health. As the movie progressed, his actions grew from epidemiologist into somewhat of a promoter of public health. His part in the story really allowed us to see many different facets of jobs with in public health and the impact they can have on the population.

I believe that the intent of the film was firstly as a romantic story. Though, the setting in rural China during the Cholera epidemic had purpose. In the beginning of the movie, Kitty and Walters relationship wasn 't well. This

Though he was foremost a scientist, he also played several rolls which were linked to public health. He aided in disease control and prevention as well as presenting many measures to fight the Cholera epidemic the town faced (Norton, Collenton, Yari, Watts, Fonlupt & Curran, 2006). From the first moments he arrives in the village, he is looking for ways the Cholera has been spread. He suspects the water supply and then tests it. Upon finding out that it was contaminated, he immediately closes the well and urges that people stop drinking and bathing with the water. When he finds out that the location is for burial of Cholera victims is dangerously close to the river, Walter pleads with residents to move the bodies and stop burying them there. Due to the spiritual reasons the villagers are reluctant. Having to prevent the town from using the contaminated water, Walter develops the aqueduct system as an alternative, so that the town has drinking and bathing water which is not containing the cholera bacteria. The film showed a great deal of epidemiology and traced the prevention of epidemics spread from finding the source of transmission to putting in place rules to stop the contraction of the disease. Additionally, it showed how by bringing in clean water, the spread of the disease could be greatly prevented (Norton et al, & Curran, 2006).

1). Beside the continual casualties the diseases caused, these two epidemics shared common qualities when it comes to the level of preparedness and views held by both locations. The first similarity is the economic situation in rural China and West Africa. They both lived deeply in poverty and relied on the bare minimum when it came to food, water, and shelter. This fact predisposes them to being infected by an outbreak (Buseh, Stevens, Bromberg, & Kelber, 2015, p. 33). Along with poverty, the spiritual views on medicine are vastly different from the western culture. They aren’t knowledgeable on common health safety practices because they mainly rely on religious and spiritual practices, as it was stated by an article in Nursing Outlook (Buseh, Stevens, Bromberg, & Kelber, 2015, p. 33). This was a big part of the Cholera spread in the movie, involving the burial of bodies near the river and its connection with their beliefs (Norton et al, & Curran, 2006). An article by Tomori also addressed the Ebola epidemic and its association with their culture’s method of burial (Tomori, 2015, p.