I was a member of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, an elite squad of contagion-hunters who helicopter into outbreaks
The Epidemic Intelligence Service is an elite squad of contagion-hunters who helicopter into outbreaks hoping to halt their spread. Borne out of America’s fear of biological warfare during the Korean War, the Intelligence Service has since responded to outbreaks of plague and Ebola, discovered new pathogens, and investigated threats of anthrax, and worse.
Uncovering the source of an outbreak, discovering patient zero, tracking down who coughed on who and where each exposed and infected person traveled, requires charm, patience and hustle. High-tech medical advances such as rapid genome sequencing help in the fight against contagion, but play a surprisingly small part.
I was gathering information about who had done what and gone where, and when, the most basic and most critical aspect of an epidemiological investigation. I learned that the men spent 23 hours alone in a cell each day with only one hour of outdoor recreational time in an outdoor cage. They ate alone — a plastic tray of food shoved under their cell door — and showered alone.
But in brewing this batch of toilet wine, the men had inadvertently cooked up the world’s most lethal nerve toxin, Botulinum, a toxin so powerful that, by some estimates, half a teaspoon could knock out half of humanity. It had been more ingenious than that. The outdoor cage was separated from another outdoor recreational area by eight-inch cinder blocks. The block had drainage holes. One of the men had purchased coaxial cable from commissary, , hollowed out the cable, attached it to the nozzle of the sports-style water bottles the prison issued, and squirted the toxin-tainted hooch through the cinder blocks to a man in an entirely different wing.
At least one of the California women who likely became infected locally has a breathing tube in her lungs. She can’t describe her life, where she went or who she spoke to. Investigators will piece together details by talking to her worried family members, friends and coworkers, hoping to solve the mystery of where and how she came into contact with the new virus. Anyone exposed to the two women will have to be isolated to minimize the ongoing transmission of the virus within the community.
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