Ebola Outbreak

1. Ebola Outbreak

2. Background: August 23 - A three day Congress beginning 21 August on world culture is being held in Istanbul. 100,000 attendees from all over the world are attending with most interested in a music festival being held in conjunction with the Congress. • 0710 – The desk clerk at a small hotel in the city discovers two seriously ill occupants of room 212 (At least 20 African jazz musicians are staying at the hotel). One occupant is unconscious and the other is seriously ill but refuses help. Three other occupants of the room have fled and are no where to be found • 0715 – The desk clerk calls the police and medical emergency personnel.

3. 0730 – The police and the medics arrive. The first man is pronounced dead and the second refuses to say anything. • 0800 – Police have determined that the occupants of room 212 were Mauritanian citizens who were taking part in the music festival as part of a party of a joint Mauritanian/Algerian delegation. There is sketchy evidence that the three individuals fleeing were also Mauritanian • 0845 – Police uncover a report from French authorities who advised yesterday that they had a Mauritanian citizen in custody who told them that 5 Mauritanian citizens, who had been working in a hospital in that country treating an Ebola epidemic for the past three months, transited Paris on their way to Turkey with the idea of attacking the Istanbul Congress. They claimed to have infected themselves with the illness thereby weaponizing themselves. The detainee thought they might have other targets as well. He described them as fanatics.

4. 1000 – The police still have no trace of the 3 remaining Mauritanians who have “disappeared.” They know that at least 20 of the other 30 Africans staying at the hotel departed the country on early morning flights on 23 August to at least a dozen different locations not fully identified. Preliminary reports from the airport indicate onward travel by some of these individuals to Baku, Almaty, Tbilisi, Tashkent, and Moscow. • 1030 – Turkish medical authorities conclude that the dead Mauritian and the critically ill one were infected with an “unusual” hemorrhagic disease, and were seeking external advice to determine if it could be definitely identified as Ebola.

5. 1045 – To the moment there has been no media coverage, but the police have learned that an investigative reporter from a sensational journal has discovered a part of the story. • Final day festival activities involving well over 85,000 people at a variety of venues throughout Istanbul are scheduled to begin at 1300. Turkish airline officials believe that some of their African passengers are scheduled to take part in public performances and special events today.