A dubious discovery

Many a young inventor or scientist yearns to make an historic discovery, one that will change the world.  But I wonder what it feels like when that discovery is a problem, rather than a solution.  Of course, one is required in order to reach the other, but it’s a funny sort of hero who makes his name for discovering the Ebola virus.

In September 1976, a blue thermos flask arrived at the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium.  Inside, packed in half-melted ice, were vials of blood taken from a Belgian nun working in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), who was suffering from an illness that no one could identify.  This was the first time Ebola was put under a microscope, by 27 year old trainee microbiologist Peter Piot.  The only known virus that shared its peculiar structure was Marburg, but he soon confirmed that this was something different.  Two weeks later, Piot was part of a team flying to the remote origins of the virus, near the source of the Congo River, in a village called Yambuku.

The answers came through detective work – talking to people and putting the pieces together.  The team noticed that many of those who were suffering from the disease were young pregnant women who had attended antenatal clinics at the hospital.  Resources were scarce, and the women received injections from one of five needles that were used each day.  They also noticed that people seemed to become sick after attending funerals.  Gradually the routes of transmission became clear, and the knowledge that was needed to contain the outbreak could be put to use.  Piot and his colleague took home blood samples that would enable them to identify the virus that they named Ebola, after a near-by river.

Peter Piot has famously stated recently that he would not be concerned to sit next to an Ebola-sufferer on a train, and advised that there will not be a major outbreak outside of West Africa due to the close contact that is required for the virus to spread.  Speaking to a BBC reporter, he stated:

"We shouldn't forget that this is a disease of poverty, of dysfunctional health systems - and of distrust."

If you would like to find out more about Peter Piot’s discovery of Ebola, I thoroughly recommend this article from the BBC’s News Magazine http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28262541 and perhaps, like me, you will even be eager enough to get on Amazon and order his memoir ‘No Time to Lose: A life in pursuit of deadly viruses’.  It gives me hope to see what a difference the potent combination of research and lobbying can make.