Book Report: The Hot Zone By Richard Preston Essay, Research Paper

Book Report: The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

In October of l989, Macaque monkeys, housed at the Reston Primate

Quarantine Unit in Reston, Virginia, began deceasing from a cryptic disease at an

dismaying rate. The monkeys, imported from the Philippines, were to be sold as

research lab animate beings. Twenty-nine of a cargo of one hundred died within a month.

Dan Dalgard, the veterinary who cared for the monkeys, feared they were deceasing

from Simian Hemorrhagic Fever, a disease lethal to monkeys but harmless to

worlds. Dr. Dalgard decided to enlist the assistance of the United States Army Medical

Research Institute of Infectious Diseases ( USAMRIID ) to assist name the instance.

On November 28th, Dr. Peter Jahlring of the Institute was in his lab proving a

virus civilization from the monkeys. Much to his horror, the blood tested positive

for the deathly Ebola Zaire virus. Ebola Zaire is the most deadly of all strains

of Ebola. It is so deadly that nine out of 10 of its victims die. Subsequently, the

masterminds at USAMRIID found out that it wasn & # 8217 ; t Zaire, ! but a new strain of Ebola,

which they named Ebola Reston. This was added to the list of strains: Ebola

Zaire, Ebola Sudan, and now, Reston. These are all level-four hot viruses. That

agencies there are no vaccinums and there are no remedies for these slayers.

In 1976 Ebola climbed out of its aboriginal concealment topographic point in the jungles

of Africa, and in two eruptions in Zaire and Sudan wiped out six 100 people.

But the virus had ne’er been seen outside of Africa and the effects of

holding the virus in a busy suburb of Washington DC is excessively terrorizing to

contemplate. Theoretically, an airborne strain of Ebola could emerge and circle

the universe in approximately six hebdomads. Ebola virus victims normally & # 8220 ; clang and bleed, & # 8221 ; a

military term which literally means the virus attacks every organ of the organic structure

and transforms every portion of the organic structure into a digested sludge of virus atoms.

A large point that Preston wanted to acquire across was the fact that the populace

thinks that the HIV virus is rather perchance the most atrocious virus on Earth,

when no 1 takes into head the effects and decease of the victims of Ebola.

Preston shows how Ebola and Marburg ( a near relation of Ebola ) is one 100

times more contagious, one hundred times as lethal, and one hundr! ed times as

fast as HIV. & # 8220 ; Ebola does in ten yearss what it takes HIV ten old ages to carry through, & # 8221 ;

wrote Richard Preston. The virus, though, has a difficult clip spreading, because the

victims normally die before contact with a widespread sum of civilians. If

there were to be another eruption in North America, the consequences would be

indefinable.

Upon reading The Hot Zone, one could easy believe that this compelling

yet terrorizing narrative sprang from the imaginativenesss of Stephen King or Michael

Crichton. But the terrorization truth is that the events really occurred and

that & # 8220 ; could-be-catastrophe & # 8221 ; was avoided by the combined heroic attempts of

assorted work forces and adult females from USAMRIID and the Center for Disease Control. Preston

writes pityingly and admiringly of the physicians, virologists and

epidemiologists who are the real-life Indiana Jones & # 8217 ; of the virus trail. Some

like Dr. Joe McCormick, Karl Johnson, and CJ Peters spent old ages tracking down

lifelessly viruses in the jungles of South America and Africa, some narrowly

get awaying decease. Their work is filled with bravery, glare and sometimes

junior-grade competitions. Others, like Dr. Nancy Jaax have lived instead conventional

lives, aside from the fact that they don a infinite suit and work with extremely

deadly viruses on a regular footing.

Preston has written a fast-paced and intriguing novel of medical terror.

His gripping narrative is filled with horrifying and gore-filled descriptions

and tension-building secret plan bends. From word pictures of events at a Belgian Hospital

in Africa to the nerve-wracking research lab scenes in Virginia, he is expert at

maintaining the reader riveted. At the decision the reader is left with the

cooling and fact based haunting after idea & # 8220 ; what if? & # 8221 ;