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
He needed a top entomologist or ecologist to search for the insects or animals that carried the disease
Karl Johnson was trying his best to outmaneuver other logistic nightmares created by the Zairian Armed Forces which didn’t want to fly anywhere near Yambuku, the embassies of the United States and France, and a host of international political issues because he needed a top entomologist or ecologist – somebody who could search for the insects or animals that carried the disease. WHO decided to send French Dr. Max Germain who worked in the agency’s Brazzaville office. Johnson also needed to get a team further out, way up to Sudan, to figure out how the epidemics of Yambuku and Maridi were connected. “This one’s for Joe,” he said, anticipating McCormick’s imminent arrival.
Two NASA space capsules
McCormick landed in Kinshasa on October 23, 1976 the same day the CDC’s David Heyman cabled word that a NASA space capsule had successfully been transported from Houston, where it was staffed and ready to receive any WHO team members unlucky enough to catch the virus. Also ready at the Frankfurt Airport in Germany was a USAF C-131 transport jet with an Apollo space capsule aboard. That day Johnson got an update from Geneva on the Sudanese epidemic. A team of investigators comprised of ten Sudanese doctors, Irishman David Simpson, France’s Paul Brès, and the CDC’s Don Francis were instructed to rendezvous immediately in Khartoum and from there make their way to Maridi. Johnson also wanted a top-flight lab worker in Kinshasa right away. Van der Gröen immediately flew to Zaire loaded down with essential supplies.
Go to Ngaliema Hospital and create a modern laboratory – immediately
Van der Gröen’s initiation into the Zairian investigation began with a harrowing midnight drive on the highway to Kinshasa, which, as was typical, was marked by several near-collisions with cars and trucks that careened at high speeds without using their headlights. At that moment nobody could have convinced van der Gröen that within a few days such sights would seem blasé. During his first of the daily morning epidemic meetings, he witnessed Johnson’s uncanny ability to coordinate a multilingual, multicultural team of individual egos, creating a single, well-oiled anti-microbe machine. Johnson ordered the young Belgian to go to Ngaliema Hospital and create a modern laboratory – immediately.
By two in the morning, he had completed each step of the immunofluorescence process
Sweat poured off van der Gröen, and every step of the procedure performed in the glove box seemed to take ten times longer than it would atop his Antwerp lab bench. By two in the morning, he had completed each step of the immunofluorescence process. All that remained was the ultra-violet light microscope examination to see whether or not the serum from Yambuku was infected with the mystery microbe. For that the pair needed a completely dark room. Van der Gröen hauled a small table into the bathroom, used the toilet as his seat, and turned off the electric lights. “Look, Karl, the cells containing the virus are bright, glowing, fluorescent masses.” The serum they were looking at came from Sophie in Yambuku, who had survived the disease. Finally they had a way to test who was infected, and to find people who had been infected but successfully fought off the microbe without developing detectable disease. They also now had a way to test whether a particular person’s blood contained potentially lifesaving antibodies.
Many pints of blood from which would be derived a tiny vial of antiserum of inestimable value
That morning Pierre Sureau awoke in Bumba feeling feverish, unsettled. He and Piot spent the day arguing with the Zairian Armed Forces for transport of equipment from Kinshasa. As the surviving wife of Yambuku’s first victim, Antoine, Sophie had antibodies of incalculable value. Yambuku nurse Sukato was the only member of the mission’s medical staff who had survived infection and illness. These two in coming days would donate many pints of blood, from which would be derived a tiny vial of antiserum of inestimable value. By October 24 Sureau’s secret fever disappeared. He told no one about it, disobeying Johnson’s instructions, convinced that whatever he had was not the Yambuku disease. Fortunately he was correct.
The clinic issued only five syringes to its nurses each morning
Both Sureau and Breman told Johnson that they privately believed the source of most of the fatal cases in Yambuku’s epidemic was the hospital. Breman described in detail his eerie stroll through the hospital, and showed Karl two syringes he had delicately removed from a pan of water in the outpatient clinic. “I’ll bet these are infected,” Breman said, noting that the clinic issued only five syringes to its nurses each morning. They were used and reused on the 300 to 600 patients who required medical attention each day. “The villagers clearly understood the hospital was the source. Long before it was closed, the people voted with their feet. They ran away. That place was almost empty when it closed.”