Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come

by Richard Preston

The evidence is that the people of Bumba Zone stopped the virus themselves. This happened after they knew how to identify the disease and understood how it was transmitted from person to person. Doctors Ruppol, Raffier, and Buassa played a key role in giving people this information during their earlier visit to Bumba. These things were very, very hard to do. The Ancient Rule went against a normal person’s instincts to protect and care for loved ones. The virus was implacable, and people had to become implacable in order to defeat it. They had to restrain themselves from giving care to sick people. They had to cut themselves off from contact with any person who looked like they might possibly have the disease. They had to stop their traditional expressions of grief for loved ones who died.