A review of THE COMING PLAGUE: NEWLY EMERGING DISEASES IN A WORLD OUT OF BALANCE by Laurie Garrett, published in 1994. Chapter 5: Yambuku – EBOLA
WHO enlisted high-security laboratories all over the world
WHO enlisted high-security laboratories all over the world. Throughout October and November 1976 blood and tissue samples from disease victims in Yambuku, Kinshasa, and Sudan were sent to laboratories in the United States (Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta), the U.K. (the Microbiological Research Establishment, Porton Down, Salisbury), Belgium (The University of Anvers and the Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine), West Germany (Bernard Nocht Institute for Naval and Tropical Diseases), and France (Special pathogens branch of the Pasteur Institute).
Sureau opened the box at his lab bench
On October 11 the Pasteur Institute’s director of overseas research, Claude Hannon, told Pierre Sureau to go to Roissy Airport to retrieve a package containing blood samples from Kinshasa, adding that he should “consider the packet’s contents dangerous.” The perilous shipment was misrouted, passing through many hands before Sureau was able to track it down. He opened the box at his lab bench, finding a note from Dr. G. Raffier of the French Embassy in Kinshasa, dated October 10, 1976.
Sureau was in Kinshasa within thirty-six hours
Sureau knew Lassa could be terribly dangerous but he had no reason to believe the suspected virus could be airborne. He placed the nine tubes in a rack atop a sterile lab table, opened the first, and dabbed a sample on filter paper. The implications of such casual behavior would be obvious a few weeks later. One of the tubes contained Sister Edmonda’s blood. Paul Brès called from Geneva saying that “the samples were highly infectious and must be studied in a maximum-security laboratory. They must be sent on immediately to the CDC in Atlanta. Don’t open them!” “Too late, Paul, I already did.” Brès instructed Sureau to repackage the tubes immediately and ship them by overnight plane to Atlanta. Then Brès asked Sureau whether he would serve as the official WHO consultant for the mysterious epidemic. He would be in Kinshasa within thirty-six hours.
An intact test tube, and another one, broken into pieces
Peter Piot was completing his virology postdoctoral research at Anvers when the first mysterious blood samples had arrived from Zaire, having heard of ‘something weird in Zaire, involving Belgian missionaries.’ An accompanying note from WHO authorities in Brazzaville indicated that yellow fever was suspected. He blithely pulled on a pair of latex gloves and without further precautions, opened the thermos to find a soup of melted ice, an illegible, water-soaked note, an intact test tube, and another one, broken into pieces, its contents mixed into the watery soup. Years later he explained that he had been “young, foolish, and fearless.”
Their folly would prove striking in retrospect
The laboratory in which this work was done had no special security or containment facilities. Their folly would prove striking in retrospect, and all concerned would later express astonishment that they suffered no ill consequences from such frivolous disregard of the potential hazards of the microbes. Indeed, three days into their research, the much older Pattyn removed a rack full of incubating infected Vero cells for examination. He tilted the rack to get a clearer look, and a tube slid out, crashing to the laboratory floor.
They were instructed to pass the samples on to higher-security laboratories
Shortly after the Belgian group’s Vero cell studies confirmed the dangers of the mysterious Zairian microbes, their government began questioning the wisdom of continuing the Antwerp research effort. They were instructed to pass the samples on to higher-security laboratories outside Belgium. Van der Gröen convinced Pattyn to save one small sample, reasoning that it should be used as a backup, in case the primary samples were damaged or lost in shipment to Porton Down.