Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC

Level 4: Virus Hunters of the
CDC by Joseph McCormick, Susan Fisher-Hoch
is a great book for getting the story of some
of the most exciting true-life "disease"
adventures of the last century straight from
two of the participants themselves, instead
of 3rd hand through a journalist -- even ones
as interesting as Laurie Garrett and Richard
Preston.

Joseph McCormick and Susan Fisher-Hoch
are heroes who should celebrated. He
was in on the original investigations of
Ebola outbreaks in 1976 and 1979. He was
the one who drove from Yambuku Zaire to
Nzara Sudan to learn how the two
outbreaks were related. (He discovered
they weren't -- he was the first person
in years and perhaps decades to
make that journey.)

He also spent years in Africa studying
Lassa, an emerging disease which is not
as infamous as Ebola but is still an
impressive health hazard.

And he later tells the story of how
Lassa arrived in Chicago.

These early chapters combine the fun of
reading travel adventures and medical
thrillers.

She worked at Porton Down, England's
Level 4 biolab and investigated outbreaks
of Legionnaire's Disease in England.

She also worked on Project SIDA, studying
and treating AIDS in Zaire.

Also of some interest is McCormick's
account of the CDC's role in the
outbreak of Ebola among monkeys in
Reston Virginia in 1989 -- the focus
of Richard Preston's bestseller
The Hot Zone.

When one of the monkey keepers started
vomiting and feeling sick, the USAMRIID
(the Army's Research Institute on
Infectious Diseases) wanted him put into
"the Slammer" -- a special medical
facility for patients with Level 4
diseases, such as Ebola.

McCormick insisted he go into a public
hospital and, caught up in reading
Preston's book and the fear of Ebola,
I thought he was crazy.

In his own book he gets to explain
himself, and so comes off as a lot
more rational. Based on his own
extensive experiences with Ebola, he
knew first of all that the man
probably did not have Ebola (turned
out to be correct) and even if he
did it was not contagious by air.

The danger comes from coming into
close contact with blood and other
body fluids.

Later, Saudi Arabia needed help to
confine cases of Crimean Congo
Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) right before
the pilgrimage -- hajj -- to Mecca.

This illness is found through much
of the world, spread by ticks.

Both of them eventually left the CDC
for political reasons and wound up
at an impressive medical institute
in Pakistan, determined to train a
new generation of virus hunters to
stop infectious diseases there and
throughout the world. The Aga Khan
University Medical School in
Karachi Pakistan. McCormick is
the chair of the Community Health
Services Department, to teach
epidemiology.

As I mentioned, they and many others
like them, are heroes.