Ebola: A documentary novel of its first explosion in Zaire by a Doctor who… (1991)

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0804114323, Mass Market Paperback)

Now, from the molten center of the "hot zone," comes a terrifying, completely authentic novel of medical suspense by William T. Close, M.D., the American physician who lived in Zaire for sixteen years, and who worked desperately to contain the first outbreak of the virus in 1976. Haunted by the images from this wrenching time, and unable to forget the people he knew and lost, Dr. Close was compelled to tell their story. EBOLA, inspired by his personal experience and based upon extensive research, is an unforgettable portrait of this devastating drama, which all began with an invisible, unknown killer . . . .

EBOLA

At a Catholic mission in Yambuku, a remote area of Zaire, Mabalo Lokela, a local teacher, visits the clinic with a raging fever. Sister Lucie, a Flemish nun and nurse, gives him a shot of an anti-malarial drug, wipes off the syringe, and awaits her next patient. Within days, Mabolo is dead. Soon after, others become ill and die. Less than three weeks later, Sister Lucie, too, is dead. As panic erupts and the villagers flee from the sickness . . . as the roads leading out of Yambuku are blocked and the dying are turned away . . . as the single radio connecting the village to the outside world brings only bad news, the valiant nuns and medical personnel left behind at the mission can only pray and wonder: will the world ever hear their plea for help?

And always there is the virus, from which there is no escape . . . .