CHAPTER FOUR
“Good afternoon, gentlemen. I understand you’re looking for information about the patients that we’ve seen with this strange flu,” said the woman standing before them.
“Yes, ma’am. My name is Gaspar Robicheaux and my family’s foundation runs a hospital down river.”
“I’m familiar. Exceptional facility by the way,” she nodded. “I’m Dr. Edina Morgan. Right now, we have no patients with this strange flu but I can tell you that we were bombarded last week. One-hundred and thirteen patients, twenty-seven deaths, and others that are still struggling.”
“Is there any similarity for those that died?” asked Nine. “Age? Previous medical history? Travel?”
“Not one damn thing,” she frowned. “This is about the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. Either patients leave, slowly recovering, and I do mean slowly, or they die. There seems to be no in between.”
“Have you determined if it’s contagious by airborne or touch?”
“Gentlemen, come with me a moment. If you’ll indulge me, I’ll give you a little lesson on viruses. I’m head of infectious disease here at the hospital and I teach it at Tulane.”
“Anything you can tell us would be helpful. Our doctors are pretty damn good but if we knew something more it would be helpful,” said Gaspar.
“We classify a virus as a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism.
Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.”
“Wait, sorry, are you telling me that viruses can infect bacteria?” asked Gaspar.
“Yes, I am.
Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most numerous type of biological entity. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1892 discovery of a non-bacterial pathogen infecting tobacco plants, more than 16,000 of the millions of virus species have been described in detail.
“When infected, a host cell is often forced to rapidly produce thousands of copies of the original virus. When not inside an infected cell or in the process of infecting a cell, viruses exist in the form of independent viral particles, that contain genetic material or long molecules of DNA or RNA.
“Viruses are considered by some biologists to be a life form, because they carry genetic material, reproduce, and evolve through natural selection. I am not one of those believers but I’m not stupid either. Many viruses contain what we might refer to as organisms of life.”
“So, how do these spread? Is it always by touch, sneezing, what’s the most common way?” asked Nine.
“I’m afraid there is no common way. Viruses spread in many ways.
One transmission pathway is through disease-bearing organisms known as vectors: for example, viruses are often transmitted from plant to plant by insects that feed on plant sap, such as aphids; and viruses in animals can be carried by blood-sucking insects.
Many viruses spread in the air by coughing and sneezing, including influenza viruses, SARS, chickenpox, smallpox, and measle.
Norovirus and rotavirus, common causes of viral gastroenteritis, are transmitted by the fecal–oral route, passed by hand-to-mouth contact or in food or water.
“Here’s the scary part, gentlemen. To produce the infection of norovirus in humans requires less than one-hundred particles. One-hundred.”
“We have a lot of animals on our property. Are they in danger?” asked Gaspar. Nine gave him a knowing smile and nodded.
“Viral infections in animals provoke an immune response that usually eliminates the infecting virus. For most viruses, once we’ve identified the cause, we can develop an anti-viral drug. The challenge for me, and I suspect your team, is that we can’t seem to find the cause. We need patient zero.”
“And that’s why we’re here. You had patients as far back as three weeks ago. We were wondering if you had the first patient,” said Nine.
“I wish I could tell you that I did,” she said shaking her head, “but I did not. I know of at least six others in the city before my first patient. The other thing you need to remember is that there could have been deaths before anything was identified. This is like looking for a needle in a haystack and the haystack if full of needles you don’t want to touch. ”
Gaspar frowned at the woman.
“Wonderful.”