At the Hanoi French Hospital in Vietnam. The victim was an American in his fifties. He was immediately taken to Hong Kong for treatment, but later died. However: the thing spread like wildfire in the hospital in Hanoi, and later in the Hong Kong hospital. And the first reports made it cleat that this did not look like avian flu.
So, what was an American doing in Hanoi? A possible answer is that he might have been part of a trip set up for children/relatives of Americans killed in the Vietnam war. It was touted as a "cleansing" thing, for "closure", from what I hear. And these people came from all of America - indeed from all over the world. There would be possible carriers going back all over the place, and mingling...
From the set of the movie "12 Monkeys"?