Bugs, Drugs and Smoke, Outbreak; Chapter 7

The World Health Organization first received notice of what was happening on 7&May from its office for the African Region in the Republic of the Congo. Ebola was confirmed on 9th May (1995) at which point the outbreak was at least a month old. It raised the prospect of a terrifying scenario: that of one of the world’s most lethal diseases – for which there was no cure – had emerged from a rainforest not far from a city of five million people, a city with an international airport that was one connecting flight away from anywhere in the world