When A Mystery Outbreak Strikes, Who You Gonna Call?
Something happened at the funeral. Something was making people incredibly sick. And local health workers had no idea what it was.
Chapter 1: The Outbreak
In April 2017 about 150 people had gathered for the funeral of a Christian minister in the small port city of Greenville, Liberia, in West Africa. The memorial spanned April 21 and 22 and included a wake that extended late into the night of the first day.
Just one day after the minister was buried, ten people arrived at the local hospital violently sick. Most of them were vomiting and had severe stomach cramps. Some had diarrhea as well. A few ran a fever, but most did not.
The symptoms came on rapidly.
But it was unclear what the patients were suffering from.
What was clear was that it could be lethal.
"These cases showed up at aan epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
