Ebola Outbreak
K-1
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.
K-2
• 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.
K-3
• 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.
K-4
• 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.
K-5