Newspaper Page Text
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May 18, 1995
Virologists search for ‘Holy Grail’:
Source of the deadly Ebola virus
M Dozens of research
ers flock to Zaire.
Close to one hundred
persons are already
dead due to the
spread of the disease.
By Karin Davies
Associated Press Writer
KINSHASA, Zaire
Bob Swanepoel is a medical de
tective who'’s been waiting for
years for a sinister killer —the
Ebola virus — to strike again.
Swanepoel, a South African vi
rologist, isone of dozens of experts
converging on Kikwit, a quaran
tined city of 600,000 at the epicen
ter of the infected zone. The city is
370 miles east of the Zairian cap
ital of Kinshasa.
There is no vaccine or cure for
Ebola, which kills 80 percent of
those who contract it, usually with
in days. Victims suffer from vio
lent diarrhea and vomiting, and
finally die with blood pouring from
their eyes, ears and noses.
The health workers’ first priori
ty was to try to prevent Ebola’s
spread. But beyond the humani
tarian mission, Swanepoel said, is
curiosity and rivalry.
“If you asked scientists, ‘What
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gives us kicks? it's ‘Where does
this all come from? That's our
holy grail,” he said.
As of today, officials had con
firmed 79 cases of the deadly vi
rus. Ofthose, 59 victims had died,
including four Italian nuns who
were caring for Ebola patients at
Kikwit General Hospital.
Cases have been confirmed in
the villages of Musango, Vanga,
Yassa Bonga, and Kenge — and
Kenge is more than halfway along
the main road from Kikwit to the
capital.
Other health workers were mov
ing into the area to dispel fears,
teach people how to avoid con
tracting Ebola, and search street
by-street for new victims. WHO
officials expect both the number
of casesand the deaths toincrease.
Ebola has long been associated
with monkeys, which also die of it.
It is known to spread via bodily
liquids, like the HIV virus which
causes AIDS. Commonly, it en
ters through a break in the skin.
But what about kissing? Shak
ing hands? Having a conversation
with an infected person?
And the big mystery: How do
both monkeys and humans get
infected tobegin with? Isit through
an insect bite? Or food? Does it
come from an animal or a plant?
Among the leads Swanepoel is
pursuing is a rumor that the first
World News
“I knew it would
thpQfl agaln and
I've been waiting 20
years for it.”
— Bob Swanepoel, virologist
known victim of the current out
break may have been infected by
someone who had eaten smoked
monkey.
Scientists have been searching
for the answer to this puzzle since
1967, when a monkey caretaker
in Germany died from a related
filovirus called Marburg.
Aid agencies to halt work
in Burundi in protest
BUJUMBURA, Burundi
(AP) Private and U.N. aid agen
cies said Monday they will sus
pend all but essential services in
Burundi for a week this month to
protest the murder of a Greek
relief worker.
A statement signed by all of
Burundi’s aid organizations said
the recent killing of Dmitri
Lascaris, 32, a field worker for
Catholic Relief Services, “illus
trates the escalating violence to
hovi
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The first case of Ebola was diag
nosed in southern Sudan in July
1976. Twomonthslater, afilovirus
emerged in northern Zaire, kill
ing 274 of 300 people in a village
on the Ebola river and acquiring
its name.
At 59, Swanepoel says this may
be his last chance to study the
virus he’s only known as “a clear
pinky liquid” in flasks. So the pro
fessor at Witwatersrand Univer
sity in South Africa set out for
Kikwit on Sunday with a spirit of
adventure.
“I knew it would happen again,”
he said, “and I've been waiting 20
years for it.”
which relief workers are subjected
to in Burundi.” He was the second
relief worker killed in the past
year.
Burundi houses about 250,000
Rwandan refugeesin camps along
itsnorthern border. About 500,000
Burundians also live in camps for
displaced people within the tiny
Central African nation.
The agencies did not say when
their work slowdown would begin
for fear of heightening tensions.
Malcolm X’s daughter heads
to San Antonio for treatment
M Qubilah Shabazz
is looking forward to
psychiatric evaluation.
MINNEAPOLIS
(AP) A daughter of the late
Malcolm X says she longs to re
gain some privacy following the
notoriety surrounding her role in
an alleged plot to kill Nation of
Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
“I look forward to being out of
Minneapolis for a spell,” Qubilah
Shabazz told the Star Tribune in
a copyright story Tuesday.
“'m hoping to go back to obscu
rity soon,” Shabazz said. “I think
the public has a tendency to for
get.”
Shabazz, 34, left Minneapolis
on Monday to begin a treatment
program in San Antonio, Texas,
that includes psychological and
chemical-dependency evalua
tions.
“I don’t mind being under psy
chiatric care. I think it will be
beneficial. ... ] am going to make
the best of my stay,” she said.
The program is part of an agree
ment shesigned last week in which
she maintained her innocence but
acknowledged her role in the al
leged plot. In exchange, the feder
al government deferred her trial
on murder-for-hire charges and
agreed to drop them in two years
if Shabazz stays out of trouble.
Inawide-ranging interview with
the Star Tribune, Shabazz talked
about her life, her family and a
government informant. She said
she could not have survived the
ordeal of being under federal in
dictment without the support of
her mother, Betty Shabazz.
“If it were not for my mother, I
don’t think I would have held up
at all,” she said. “She acted more
or less as a buffer to the whole
nasty situation. She absorbed a
lot of the pain for me.”
Betty Shabazz, who has said
that Farrakhan played a role in
the murder of her husband,
Malcolm X, appeared with
Farrakhan over the weekend at a
fund-raising event in New York
City. The event was intended to
help the Shabazz family pay legal
and other bills.
Qubilah Shabazz did not attend.
“I appreciate the support of
Farrakhan and his followers in
the Nation of Islam,” she said sim
ply.
Farrakhan has denied involve
ment in Malcolm X’s assassina
tion on Feb. 21, 1965, at the
Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.
About the informant, Michael
Fitzpatrick, Shabazz said she fell
inlove with her former high school
classmate over the telephone last
year. She said she moved to Min
neapolis to be near him.
By mid-July, he talked about
nothing except Farrakhan. She
said her mistake was agreeing to
anything he said.
“There would not have been a
plot without Fitzpatrick,” shesaid.