How Epidemics Play Out, End

In the opening scene of the 1993 movie And the Band Played On, a convoy of muddy trucks rolls through a monsoon rain. The mud on the jungle road is several inches deep. The drivers can barely see out the filthy windows. The first truck, emblazoned with the laurel-leaf blue seal of the World Health Organization, pulls up to a field hospital, a long building with a corrugated tin roof. Before exiting the truck, two doctors in blue hospital gowns and gloves strap on gas masks. They walk into the building and look around. The place is deserted and everything looks awry, as if the building has been robbed.