“It’s a bit hard to have a conversation without looking at you,” Cyrill said with a sympathetic smile.
“Although it is true you look as if you’ve been crying, you still look as pretty as ever to me.”
“Let’s change the subject,” Marissa said.
“Then I’ll tell you why I stopped by,” Cyrill said.
“I had to fly up here on other business, but early this morning one of the people over in bacteriology came to my office with the news that there has been one other concentrated area of TB salpingitis cases like the ones you are interested in.”
“Oh?”
“The location surprised me,” Cyrill said.
“Would you care to guess?”
“I don’t think I have the mental strength,” Marissa: said.
“Brisbane,” Cyrill said.
“Australia?”
“Yup, Brisbane, Australia. It’s part of what they call over there the Gold Coast.”
“I’m not even sure where on the Australian continent Brisbane is,” Marissa confessed.
“It’s in Queensland, on the east coast,” Cyrill said.
“I’ve been there once. Charming city. Great climate. Lots of new high-rises along the beach south of the city. It’s an attractive area.”
“Anybody have any thoughts as to why there would be a concentration there?” Marissa asked. As far as she was concerned it might have been Timbuktu.
“Not really,” Cyrill admitted.
“There has been some increase in TB in general, especially in those countries allowing significant immigration from Southeast Asia. Whether the Brisbane area has gotten more than its share of boat people, I haven’t the foggiest. There has been some increase -in TB here in the U.S. above and beyond what could be expected with immigration from endemic areas, but I believe that’s secondary to drugs and AIDS rather than any change in the pathogenicity of the bacteria.
At any rate, here’s a paper on the cases in Australia.”
Cyrill handed Marissa a reprint of an article that appeared in the Australian Journal of Infectious Diseases.
“Apparently the author is a pathologist who found twenty-three cases similar to those you’ve described. It’s quite a good paper.), Marissa began to flip through the article. It was hard for her to get excited. Australia was halfway around the world.
“The fellow from bacteriology told me something else,” Cyrill continued.
“He said that there was a case of disseminated TB at the Memorial. I mention it only because the patient is a twenty nine-year-old woman from a well-to-do Boston family. Her name is Evelyn Welles. The demographics of the case jumped out at me, I thought it might interest you as well. So there you have it.”
“Thank you, Cyrill,” Marissa said. She tried to smile. She was afraid she was about to start crying again. Seeing an old friend was reanimating her fragile emotions.
Cyrill stayed for another fifteen minutes before he insisted he had to leave. He had to be back in Atlanta that evening.
After Cyrill had departed, Marissa’s depression returned. She sat at her desk for a long time without doing much of anything.
At least she didn’t cry. She just stared out the window at the deteriorating day. But eventually she began to think of the, information
Cyrill had brought her. She glanced down at the journal article. She’d read it later. Meanwhile there were things she had to do. Picking herself up, she pulled her coat back on and forced herself to drive to the Memorial.
The patient, Evelyn Welles, was in isolation in intensive care, with a chart that reflected the difficulties of her case; it weighed five pounds. Marissa had little difficulty finding her. Nor did she have trouble finding the resident attending to her care. He was a slight fellow from New York City with intense eyes and nervous twitches. His name was Ben Goldman.
“She’s in bad shape,” Ben admitted upon Marissa’s inquiry.
“Really bad. Moribund. I don’t expect her to last much more than another day. We’ve got her on maximum chemo but it doesn’t seem to be doing anything.”
“It’s definitely TBT’ Marissa asked as she peered through the glass of the woman’s intensive-care cubicle. She’d been intubated and was on assisted respiration. A fully gowned and masked nurse was in the cubicle giving moment-to-moment care. Multiple