A story of incredible heroics by US Army in Maryland....
Ebola's Dogged Enemies
Team of Fort Detrick Scientists Labored for Years to Develop Vaccine
By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 2, 2005; C01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/01/AR2005100101357.html By Day 3, Tom Geisbert knew the monkeys were going to die.
He could see it in their faces as he entered the monkey room in Suite
AA-4, wearing the china-blue plastic spacesuit that serves as a uniform
for the scientists of Fort Detrick's U.S. Army Medical Research
Institute of Infectious Diseases when they are working with the world's most
vicious viruses.
Healthy monkeys in the Biosafety Level 4 lab would often react to his
suit by jumping, screeching and beating on their cages. But these
monkeys glared sullenly at Geisbert with bloodshot eyes and expressionless
faces.
It was Oct. 25, 1999. Geisbert had devoted nearly a decade to finding a
vaccine for Ebola. Now he was waiting to see whether the vaccine he'd
given the monkeys would provide any protection against the Ebola raging
inside their bodies.
He pulled on the back of the cage, and a false wall expanded, slowly
pressing a monkey against the bars, where Geisbert jabbed it in the thigh
with anesthetic. Fifteen minutes later, he pulled the sedated primate
from its cage. He drew blood: The white blood cell count was plummeting.
The vaccine for a disease more lethal than smallpox was failing. It was
a bad day in the fight against Ebola.
It would take four more years of such days before Geisbert and his team
would make a breakthrough that could save lives by offering protection
from an epidemic or a bioterrorism attack.
Each day, Geisbert steeled himself to witness the ravages of the virus.
( a very long article, but also interesting)