At the American Embassy on Diplomatic Drive, Abuja, Larry Brown was waiting for his first chat with the American ambassador since he’d started work. He waited an hour, but at last, he was called in.
“Larry, good to see you. Take a seat. Settling in?”
“Yes, thanks.”
“I heard you’ve spent a bit of time travelling around. Good idea. Get a feeling for things. How’s Lagos? Up here in Abuja, the air’s a bit fresher. How do you find it?”
“Lagos, sir? I’m still trying to get my head around the place, let alone travel around it.”
“It’s a challenge, Larry. That’s what it is - a challenge. But you know the US position on healthcare. The only health care worth having here is private. Even that falls short of what we would expect in USA. And the quality of doctors? It makes me want to cry, Larry. Officially, it’s rated as poor to fair, and as for the use of modern procedures, I wouldn’t let them treat my dog.”
Larry opened his mouth to say something but was too slow.
“Most of their medicines are imported from Europe. That’s OK, I suppose, Larry, but we need to change that. More stuff needs to come out of USA. That’s partly why you’re here - to find ways to give our exports a boost. Met the guys in charge? Takes a while.
“As for their blood supplies, keep a pint or two of your own in the fridge, Larry. And never have a car accident out of town. And make sure you’re nowhere near the scene if there’s a car crash or civil disaster. The military would even struggle to scrape up their own folk.
So don’t stand there watching, Larry. Oh, dear me, no. Make yourself scarce. That’s my advice. You wouldn’t want to get the blame.”
“I’m learning,” Larry said.
“Too many Africans anyway, Larry. Breed like rabbits. Nice rabbits, I hasten to say because I like Nigerians, so don’t get me wrong. Lot of character. I’ve been here long enough to make a lot of friends. But it’s one hell of a mess out there. Shoulder to shoulder, especially Lagos.”
“I noticed.”
“Now then, Larry, I understand you uncovered a bout of sickness up north. WHO called, keen to know some more. What did you find? We need to get back to them with something. They’re easily panicked.”
“Kano, sir. A closed private clinic in a backstreet. Kano State government had already been in to clear things up.”
“Good. It’s all about standards, Larry. Go on.”
“It seems there was a doctor operating out of the clinic who was bringing sick patients in at the back of a Toyota pickup and…”
“Christ! Go on.”
“And carrying them out in the same pickup.”
“Cured, Larry? Cured?”
“Dead, sir.”
“Dear Lord! How many?”
“I spoke to a state official. They reckon a hundred or more. More than a hundred records found anyway. No names, just numbers.”
“Jeez…Go on.”
“Seems like they all came in with some sort of respiratory infection.
That’s why I called WHO. Things like that need reporting.”
“Dead right, Larry. So have they arrested the doctor?”
“He disappeared, sir.”
“Disappeared? Where?”
“No idea, sir.”
“So, what are they doing about it?”
“Nothing. Too busy with insurgencies and shootings. They uncovered another bomb stock yesterday. It was on CNN and Fox.”
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed, Larry. Don’t want to get involved, but don’t want another Iraq or Syria either. Go on.”
“Then I heard about a similar case in Kenya from a French guy I know. Then there are some cases in Thailand. Did you read the Washington Post?”
“No time. Why you ask?”
“There’s a conference in Bangkok. Could be a new coronavirus virus.”
“And you, an American, discovered it, Larry?”
Larry smiled. “Not exactly, sir, but let me know if you start sneezing or coughing.”
“Ha! You bet. Where’s my face mask? Keep me posted, Larry.”
***
Later that day, Larry logged onto the WHO website to find that a new disease outbreak notification, a DON, had just been posted.“The Ministry of Public Health in Thailand has announced three laboratory-confirmed cases of a respiratory infection caused by a new coronavirus strain. The first case was a 42-year-old man from Ayuttaya, the second a 28-year-old man from the same area. The third was a twenty-one-year-old woman from Bangkok. All three patients have died.
It is known that at least four more patients have also died following similar symptoms. WHO is currently investigating an outbreak of a respiratory infection in Kano State, Northern Nigeria, and a similar case in Kenya. WHO is monitoring the situation, particularly in relation to identifying the virus.
“So, what is the Nigerian health department’s response?” Larry asked himself. He answered it himself. “Nothing by the look of it.”