Description

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“Eloquent, gripping, harrowing.”—Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone
 
When a mysterious virus first exploded in Zaire in 1976, American physician William T. Close worked desperately to contain the outbreak. Haunted by this wrenching crisis, Dr. Close felt compelled to honor the memory of the courageous people he knew and lost. This is their story: a terrifying, completely authentic novel that begins with an invisible killer.
 
It strikes without warning—a lethal disease with no name . . . and no cure.
 
At a Catholic mission in Yambuku, a remote village sixty miles south of the Ebola River, local teacher Mabalo Lokela visits the clinic with a raging fever. Sister Lucie, a Flemish nun and nurse, gives him a shot of an antimalarial drug, wipes off the syringe, and awaits her next patient. Within days, Mabalo is dead. Soon, others are falling ill. Less than three weeks later, the virus claims Sister Lucie’s life as well. Panic erupts, but as the villagers attempt to flee, all roads leading out of Yambuku are closed off, the dying forced back. And as the single radio connecting the mission to the outside world brings only bad news, the valiant nuns and medical personnel left behind have no choice but to pray, and wonder: Will they survive long enough for help to arrive?

About the Author

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William Taliaferro Close (1924–2009) was a young surgeon when he first went to Zaire in 1960. He practiced medicine and surgery there for the next sixteen years. During the upheavals that followed independence, he was for a year the only surgeon at the fifteen-hundred-bed Kinshasa General Hospital. Later he was in charge of rebuilding the hospital and became president of its board of directors. He served as a chief doctor of the Congolese army and personal physician to the president of Zaire. During the Ebola outbreak of 1976 he supervised logistics for the international medical team, and during the 1995 outbreak he worked as an unofficial liaison among the Centers for Disease Control, the Zairian government, and many concerned international organizations. Dr. Close was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He practiced family medicine in Big Piney, Wyoming, from 1977 until a month before his death. Dr. Close was married for sixty-five years and had four children, six grandchildren, and an adopted Congolese son.

Praise For…

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“Eloquent, gripping, harrowing.”—Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone