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
Yombe Ngongo was fighting for her life at home
Yombe Ngongo had checked out on August 30, 1976 and was now fighting for her life at home, in the village of Yamisakolo, tended by her anxious nine-year-old sister, Euza, feeling her own first symptoms of headache and fever.
They could only guess what might be causing such horrendous things to happen
Though Sebo Dombe was recovering nicely from his hernia operation and the pair had returned home, Sebo was semi-delirious, hemorrhaging blood. As was Lizenge Embale, who had returned to her home in Yaekenga in the beginning of September but was now struggling to stay alive. At her side, vomiting blood and bleeding from his eyes, was her husband, Ekombe Mongwa. The Sisters knew only of Antoine’s case, and they did everything they could to save their friend, although they could only guess what might be causing such horrendous things to happen to a human body.
They died
Nothing worked. On September 8, Mabalo (Antoine) Lokela died. Unbeknownst to the Sisters, Yombe Ngongo died the day before in her village home. On September 9, her little sister, Euza, succumbed. That week Lizenge Embale and her husband, Ekombe, died in the hut in Yaekenga – again the Sisters didn’t know.
His body was readied for burial by evacuating all food and excreta
Antoine’s funeral was well attended and, as was customary, his body was readied for burial by evacuating all food and excreta, a procedure that was generally performed by bare-handed women. In a matter of days Antoine’s mother, Gizi and Sophie were suffering the same ghastly disease. Sophie and Gizi survived, but Antoine’s mother died on September 20, as did his mother-in-law, Ngbua, who had assisted in the funeral preparations. Though Sophie survived those hellish September days, her baby was stillborn – another hemorrhagic victim. In all, twenty-one of Antoine’s friends and family members got the disease; eighteen died.
Panic spread
Soon the hospital was full of people suffering with the new symptoms. Panic spread as village elders spoke of an illness, unlike anything ever seen before, that made people bleed to death. In Yambuku the Sisters were already close to the breaking point, not knowing the why, what, or how of the new disease. The horror was magnified by the behavior of the many patients whose minds seemed to snap. Word, and the disease, spread quickly to villages throughout the Bumba Zone. In some, the huts of the infected were burned by hysterical neighbors.
A horror that shook the provincial physician to his very soul
On September 12, 1976 Sister Béata developed the sudden fever, muscle aches, nausea, diarrhea, and bleeding gums that she and her fellow nurses now recognized only too well. Sisters Myriam and Edmonda prayed for a miracle and radioed urgent pleas for assistance. Bumba Zone medical director Dr. Ngoi Musshola scoured the city of Bumba for petrol, finally arranging transport across the roughly fifty miles to Yambuku on September 15. What greeted Ngoi upon arrival was a horror that shook the provincial physician to his very soul. With great care he gathered as much clinical information as possible, and on September 17 rushed back to Bumba in order to cable his report to authorities in Kinshasa.
Ngoi’s report
Ngoi’s report described the first case, that of Mabalo Lokela, and then listed twenty-six cases of the strange illness, giving the names of the patients, noting that fourteen had died, ten were still sick, and four had fled the hospital in terror, their whereabouts now unknown. Eerily, Ngoi corrected his report just before sending it to Kinshasa to note that two individuals on his ‘ailing’ list had died by the time he reached Bumba. He listed the treatments tried without success and noted that the hospital had used all its antibiotic supplies. Warning that “there is already panic” in all the villages, Ngoi requested assistance from Kinshasa authorities.
The first historic description of a new disease
He left Yambuku having recommended that the Sisters take three measures immediately: Hospitalize the cases; Use public cemeteries; Boil potable water. What Ngoi had written, though he did not know it at the time, was the first historic description of a new disease. In clear, succinct, and, as time would show, largely accurate terms, Ngoi had described what would prove to be the second most lethal disease of the 20th century.
A hasty retreat from Yambuku after just twenty-four hours
On September 19 Sister Béata died. The same day reports came into the mission of illnesses and deaths from the bizarre bleeding disease in over forty villages. By now, there was real danger of a mass exodus of hysterical villagers fleeing to nearby zones – and taking the disease with them. Through the missionary radio relay system, the Sisters sent more urgent pleas for assistance. Federal authorities dispatched two professors from the National University of Zaire to Yambuku. They reached the mission on September 23, intending to conduct a six-day study of the problem, but cut their visit short and beat a hasty retreat from Yambuku after just twenty-four hours.
When they performed autopsies, they were aghast at the extensive damage inflicted by the disease
The professors first focused on a small child who was writhing in agony in a hospital crib. While they discussed what might be done, the child died before their eyes. The academics were shaken from their intellectualizing, and immediately set to work collecting blood and tissue samples from patients and cadavers, interviewing ailing patients and reviewing their medical charts. As the professors commenced their research, Sister Myriam, who had nursed Sister Béata, was suddenly overcome by piercing headaches and fever. The fear among mission staff was contagious. Unfortunately, the academics hadn’t taken Ngoi’s field report seriously, and brought no protective gloves, masks, or gowns for their use during procedures that put them in contact with infected blood. When they performed autopsies, they were aghast at the extensive damage inflicted by the disease, and removed liver samples to send to sophisticated laboratories for further analysis. On September 30, Sister Myriam died in the Kinshasa hospital.