1
According to Brinkmann, at least one member of the group attempted suicide. Brinkmann chose to protect the individual's identity.
2
J. D. Frame et al., “Lassa Fever, a New Virus Disease of Man from West Africa,”
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
19 (1970): 670â76.
3
Several sources of excellent information on the events of 1969 in Nigeria were consulted in preparation of this chapter. The reader is particularly referred to the following: J. G. Fuller,
Fever: The Hunt for a New Killer Virus
(New York: Reader's Digest Press, 1974); and J. D. Frame, “The Story of Lassa Fever,”
New York State Journal of Medicine:
“Part I: Discovering the Disease,” Vol. 92 (1992): 199â202;
“Part II: Learning More About the Disease,” Vol. 92 (1992): 264â67;
“Part III: The Disease in the Community,” Vol. 92 (1992): 440â44;
“Part IV: The Politics of Research,” Vol. 93 (1993): 35â40;
“Part V: The Fruits of Research” (in press).
4
The bubonic plague that claimed hundreds of millions of lives worldwide in two major sweeps across Europe and Asia was spread originally by fleas. But there was a form of the disease that spread pneumonically, or in the air from one person to another.
5
Frame (1992), Part I, op. cit.
6
S. M. Buckley, J. Casals, and W. Downs, “Isolation and Antigenic Characterization of Lassa Virus,”
Nature
227 (1970): 174.
7
R. W. Speir et al., “Electron Microscopy of Vero Cell Cultures Infected with Lassa Virus,”
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
19 (1970): 692â94.
8
E. Leifer, D. J. Locke, and H. Bourne, “Report of a Laboratory-Acquired Infection Treated with Plasma from a Person Recently Recovered from the Disease,”
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
19 (1970): 677â79.
9
Frame (1992), Part I, op. cit.
10
F. P. Pinheiro et al., “Amapari, a New Virus of the Tacaribe Group from Rodents and Mites of Amapa Territory, Brazil,”
Proceedings of the Society of Experimental and Biological Medicine
122 (1966): 531â35.
11
J. Casals et al., “A Current Appraisal of Hemorrhagic Fevers in the U.S.S.R.,”
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
15 (1966): 751â64.
12
Buckley et al. (1970), op. cit.
13
S. M. Buckley and J. Casals, “Isolation and Characterization of the Virus,”
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
19 (1970): 680â91; and Speir et al. (1970) op. cit.
14
The CDC has, over the years, upgraded its high-security laboratories repeatedly as the technology of biological containment improved. In the late 1960s the CDC's top security facility housed
labs-within-labs that formed a sort of concrete onion, layer upon layer of which had to be penetrated to reach the central core. At each level double air-lock doors sealed the air space tightly, and the chambers were kept under pressure that directed all airâand microbesâtoward special ventilators where they were destroyed by ultraviolet light and filtered through several layers of sheets that strained out anything bigger than a large molecule. All personnel showered before and after entry and wore protective head-to-toe suits.
15
Very detailed renditions of these events can be found in John Fuller's
Fever
and John Frame's “The Story of Lassa Fever. Part II: Learning More About the Disease.” Both are cited above.
16
G. M. Edington, and H. A. White, “The Pathology of Lassa Fever,”
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
66 (1972): 381â401.
17
J. M. Troup et al., “An Outbreak of Lassa Fever on the Jos Plateau, Nigeria, in January-February, 1970,”
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
19 (1970): 695â96.
18
D. E. Carey et al., “Lassa FeverâEpidemiological Aspects of the 1970 Epidemic, Jos, Nigeria,”
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
66 (1972): 402â8.
19
B. E. Henderson et al., “Lassa Fever: Virological and Serological Studies,”
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
66 (1972): 409â16.
20
D. Cummins et al., “Acute Sensorineural Deafness in Lassa Fever,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
264 (1990): 2093â96; L. P. Ryback, “Deafness Associated with Lassa Fever,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
264 (1990): 2119; J. D. Frame, “Clinical Features of Lassa Fever in Liberia,”
Review of Infectious Diseases
11, Suppl. 4 (1989): s783âs789; and J. B. McCormick et al., “A Case-Control Study of the Clinical Diagnosis and Course of Lassa Fever,”
Journal of Infectious Diseases
155 (1987): 445â55.
21
J. B. Dibble,
Outlaw for God
(Hanover, MA: Christopher Publishing House, 1992).
22
Frame (1992), Part III, op. cit.
23
It is unfortunate that in historic outbreaks, such as this one, the names of non-Western disease victims and medical staff often go unrecorded in published literature. Whenever possible, the author has endeavored to include such names.
24
P. E. Mertens et al., “Clinical Presentation of Lassa Fever Cases During the Hospital Epidemic at Zorzor, Liberia, March-April 1972,”
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
22 (1973): 780â84.
26
The team's predictions proved quite accurate. Lassa is now known to be endemic to many regions of Liberia, and treatment of the disease had, prior to its most recent civil war, become a nearly routine feature of the country's medicine.
27
In 1867 English physician Lister revolutionized medicine by publishing and promoting details on sterile hospital practices. Prior to Lister, patients were extremely likely to die of bacterial infections following surgery.
28
T. P. Monath et al., “Lassa Virus Isolation from
Mastomys natalensis
Rodents During an Epidemic in Sierra Leone,”
Science
185 (1974): 263â65.
29
D. W. Fraser et al., “Lassa Fever in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone, 1970â1972. I: Epidemiological Studies,”
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
23 (1974): 1131â39; and T. P. Monath et al., “Lassa Fever in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone, 1970â1972. II: Clinical Observations and Virological Studies on Selected Hospital Cases,”
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
23 (1974): 1140â49.
30
Monath et al. (1974), “Lassa Fever in the Eastern Province.”
31
Nevertheless, Casals and Pinneo both donated blood countless times over subsequent years, and CDC antisera made from their plasma undoubtedly saved many lives, particularly in Nigeria. Nigerian physicians and nurses who survived Lassa fever also generously donated their blood over the years, providing a steady supply of antiserum specific to the Jos strain.
32
Upper Volta is now called Burkina Faso.
33
J. D. Frame, “Surveillance of Lassa Fever in Missionaries Stationed in West Africa,”
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
52 (1975): 593â98.
34
The April 9, 1974, edition of the
New Nigerian,
published out of Lagos, carried a headline: “How Alien Tried to Spread Killer DiseaseâLassa Epidemic Narrowly Avoided.”
35
Diepahtzer Nachrichter
, March 18, 1974: 1.
36
“This Doctor Risks His Life for a Deadly III Patient,”
Bild Zeitung
, March 18, 1974.
37
This is the same Dr. Lehmann-Gruber described in Chapter 3 as playing a key role in the battle against the Marburg virus.
38
“Is the Fever Physician Dangerous for Us?”
Bild-Hamburg,
March 22, 1974.
39
“U.S. Foreign Minister Kissinger Will Save the Courageous Fever Doctor from Hamburg,”
Bild Zeitung,
March 19, 1974.
40
Had Monath's final conclusions on the Sierra Leone outbreak been published before these events took place, the group's fears might have eased. Monath and Casals found that the terrifying fatality rates seen in the hospital outbreaks of Jos and Zorzor were atypical. About half of all infected people in those cases died. But surveys of the Sierra Leone villages showed that most people survived the disease: only 5 percent of those who were infected by inhaling the virus from another person or rat feces/urine developed fatal disease. Monath was convinced direct blood-to-blood exposure to the virus was more dangerous, and might account for the far higher death rates in hospital settings.
41
K. Muller, “Flug in einer Plastikfolie,”
Welt,
March 22, 1974.
42
“Ghostly Arrival,”
Hamburger Abendblatt,
March 22, 1974.
43
Hamburger Morgenpost,
March 19, 1974: 1.
44
H. Nannen, “One Can See How One May Err,”
Stern,
March 28, 1974: 3.
45
New Nigerian
(1974), op. cit. Years later the Nigerian government and press positions concerning Lassa would change, as outbreaks of the disease continued. Though there would continue to be regret that the virus had been named after a Nigerian town, the press and government would no longer claim the disease was carried by foreigners. For good examples of later Nigerian press accounts, see A. Adenmosum, “The Lassa-Fever Scourge,”
Pharmacy World Journal
6 (1989): 95; and U. Fabian, “Combating Lassa Fever,”
Daily Sketch,
February 23, 1993: 5.