“High. Tell me, does Dr. Richter have a skin rash?”
Marissa couldn’t remember. “I’ll check.”
“The first thing I want you to do is draw bloods, obtain urine samples, and do throat swabs for viral culture on all seven cases, and have them rushed to the CDC. Use Delta’s small-package service. That will be the fastest way. I want you personally to draw the blood, and for Christ’s sake be careful. From the monkey, too, if you can. Pack the samples in dry ice before shipping them.”
“I’ve just seen what might be another case,” said Marissa. “One of the clinic’s lab techs.”
“Include him, too, It sounds increasingly serious. Make sure that all the patients are totally isolated with complete barrier nursing. And tell whoever is in charge not to do any lab work until I get there.”
“I have,” said Marissa. “You’re coming yourself?”
“You bet I am,” said Dubchek. “This could be a national emergency. But it is going to take some time to prepare the Vickers Mobile Lab. Meanwhile, start setting up a quarantine for contacts, and try to get in touch with the people who sponsored that eye meeting in Africa and see if any of the other doctors who went are di. And one other thing: don’t say anything to the press. With all the publicity about AIDS, I don’t think the public could deal with the threat of another fatal viral disease. There could be widespread panic. And Marissa, I want you to wear full protective clothing, including goggles, when you see the patients. The pathology department should have them if no one else does. I’ll be there as soon as possible.”
Hanging up, Marissa experienced a rush of anxiety. She wondered if she’d already exposed herself to the virus. Then she worried about having already talked to Clarence Hems from the L.A. Times. Well, what was done was done. She was glad that Dubchek was coming.
She knew she’d been in over her head from the moment she’d arrived in L.A.
After putting in a call for Dr. Navarre, Marissa had one of the nurses help her get the materials ready to draw blood from the patients. She needed vacu-containers with anticoagulants, plastic bags, and sodium hypochlorite to decontaminate the outside of the bags. She also needed urine containers and throat swabs. Then she phoned the micro lab and asked to have containers of viral transport media sent up, along with shipment containers and dry ice. When Dr. Navarre called, she related what Dubchek had said about complete barrier nursing and about no lab tests until he’d arrived with a special facility. She also mentioned that they had better get together to talk about systematically quarantining all contacts. Dr. Navarre agreed, shocked to hear that Dubchek thought they might be dealing with viral hemorrhagic fever.
Following Dubchek’s advice, Marissa got goggles from pathology. She’d never thought about catching an illness through her eyes, but she was aware that their surface was a mucous membrane and was obviously as available to viral assault as her nasal mucosa. When she was fully attired in hood, goggles, mask, gown, gloves and booties, she went to Dr. Richter’s cubicle to begin her sampling.
Before she started, she examined him for a skin rash. His arms were clear, but he did have a curious red area about the size of a quarter on his right thigh. Lifting up his hospital gown, Marissa noted a fine, but definite, maculopapular eruption covering most of his trunk. She was impressed that Dubchek had anticipated it.
She drew the blood first, then filled the urine container from the catheter bag. After each was sealed, she washed its exterior with sodium hypochlorite, then put it in a second bag. After the exterior of the second bag was washed in the disinfectant, she allowed it to be removed from the room.
Disposing of the hood, mask, gown, gloves and booties, and then donning new ones, Marissa went on to the next patient, the medical secretary, whose name was Helen Townsend. Marissa repeated the same procedures she’d done on Dr. Richter, including looking for skin eruptions. Helen also had a faint rash on her trunk, but no red circle on her thigh or elsewhere. She seemed less ill than Richter, but none of the patients appeared well enough to question Marissa much as she went about her sampling. Only Alan Moyers could muster the strength to offer some objections. At first he refused to allow Marissa to draw blood unless she told him what his diagnosis was. He was terrified. When Marissa told him the truth, that she did not know