Fearing the Catastrophe: The Man who Discovered Ebola

(Head Image: Peter Piot wearing protective gear in Yambuku, 1976)

Ebola River gave the hemorrhagic virus its name, courtesy of Peter Piot and his colleagues. Piot discovered Ebola in 1976 after a Belgian nun first fell mysteriously ill in a remote village of the Belgian Congo, called Yambuku. She was in a mission hospital at the time, and initially thought to have Yellow Fever.

Piot was sent a sample of her blood to test. Held only in a thermos, and with one vile broken, Piot set about the task of fishing the complete vial out of the infected blood and floating glass. Several tests were done, all inconclusive to name the virus that had struck down the nun.

The nun, along with several of her colleagues, died, sparking an investigation that lead a then 27 year old Piot to the site of the outbreak. It was conclusive that the spread of the virus had been in part, due to the clinic’s failure to observe basic hygiene rules. The outbreak of the virus was drastically spread through the use of inoculation with unsterilized needles.

Piot went on to dedicate 30 years of his life to AIDS research. Ebola was behind him, and in his belief, he never considered the virus (even though deadly), to be in the same category as modern day diseases. ‘In comparison to AIDS or Malaria, [Ebola] didn’t present much of a problem because the outbreaks were always brief and local. Around June it became clear to me that there was something fundamentally different about the outbreak.”

In his self-reflecting interview with Rafaela von Bredow and Veronika Hackenbroch of The Observer, Piot expresses the hefty budget cuts to WHO’s Department of Hemorrhagic Fever; in conjunction with civil war and a collapsed health care system in West Africa as precursors to the “perfect storm.” The growing concern in Nigeria, Piot continues, “if Ebola virus lodges there [Port Harcourt, Lagos], and begins to spread, it would be an unimaginable catastrophe.” He speculates that the virus is “clearly mutating” and that in 2014, “we hardly have any way to combat this virus.”

But Piot still holds some hope. “I have always been an optimist and I think that we now have no other choice than to try everything, really everything. It’s good that the United States and some other countries are finally beginning to help…We don’t just need care personnel, but also logistics experts, trucks, jeeps and foodstuffs…as long as these measures [quarantine/curfew] aren’t imposed with military power.”

“This isn’t just an epidemic any more. This is a humanitarian catastrophe.”

You can read the full interview transcript here.