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

by Richard Preston

Days went by. Khan suited up and rounded the red zone, and he and Fletcher worked together. Every evening, the two doctors ate dinner at a hotel, drank a beer, planned action, and returned at night to continue working. Fletcher’s respect for Khan grew. They became friends. Meanwhile more and more Ebola patients kept arriving, including children. Auntie kept bringing in more cots, until the ward got so jammed with cots that it became difficult to move around. Patients were dying in the beds and in the cots, and the nurses were putting the bodies into biohazard body bags and removing them. Then there was the problem of food. The patients, especially children, needed to eat, if they could hold down food. Khan and Fletcher worked on providing a steady supply of food to the ward.