The Malthus Pandemic
Page 30
CHAPTER 30
In Lagos, Larry Brown woke well before dawn and couldn't get back to sleep. He often slept badly if the day before had dragged or he felt he hadn't achieved enough. But what had woken him this time was a dream and what was keeping him awake was trying to resolve the problem the dream had thrown up.
In his dream, Joseph, Ibrahim and Olafemi in the office had all phoned in sick. But then Joseph had phoned in again to say he was now better but that Ibrahim and Olafemi were dead.
"Coughing fits, Larry," the dream Joseph said sounding perfectly fit and well.
"What time will you be in, then Jo?" Larry had asked the dream Joseph.
Never," said the dream Joseph, "I need to look after my mom and my dad - they're sick, too."
Larry had woken up, looked at the clock radio, saw it was only 3am and put the pillow over his head. But it was far too hot and he slung the sheet off and lay there, staring into the darkness. The hundred, unexplained, respiratory infection deaths were still troubling him far more than his real, paid job for the Embassy.
What was bothering him was the apparent silence around the Kano deaths - or alleged deaths as he kept reminding himself. The problem was that no records existed and no bodies had been found. It was just rumour from locals about bodies being carried away from the Kofi clinic. What was it about some countries that could accept such a situation without question?
The State Government, probably because he was from the US Embassy, had promised him an update despite their obvious disinterest in tracking down the missing doctor whose clinic they had closed. He understood that bureaucracy sometimes got in the way - the USA had its fair share - but one hundred or more deaths and no names? Nothing except numbers on sheets of paper found in an otherwise empty filing cabinet? At least in the USA someone would have asked questions and then there would have been a public outcry. Here, local people who had witnessed the comings and goings at the clinic appeared disinterested. Neither had he seen anything in the Nigerian press except a low key item in the Daily Independent on the WHO report and a mention that some "isolated" cases of a respiratory "bug" in Kano were being investigated.
Larry got up, made himself a coffee and logged onto the internet. He checked out the Kano State government website to try to understand how it operated - he was none the wiser. He double-checked the WHO website for any updates on the DON - there wasn't one. He checked the Kenyan Ministry of Health website for something - there was nothing. He checked the Thailand Ministry of Public Health site and there was nothing, Larry closed the lid of his laptop.
One thing was for sure - he wasn't going to spend another day looking out of the office window. He decided to fly back up to Kano and do his own checking.