Part 1, Chapter 3 Diagnosis Summary

Several years later, the author visits with Dr. David Silverstein, who has gained a huge reputation in Nairobi. Silverstein relates a 2 a.m. phone call that informed him that Dr. Musoke's blood tested positive for Marburg, a virus about which little is known. It was named after a town in Germany where, in 1967, citizens contracted the virus from monkeys transported from Uganda to a local laboratory. Many of the monkeys had been brought in by a trader who was more interested in money than the health of the animals.

The virus is different from most because rather than being ball-shaped, it is a filovirus, or has tendrils like hair or worms that tangle together. They can also roll up into loops, a very unique trait. The other well-known filovirus is Ebola. Marburg kills one in four humans who receive...