The Hot Zone – Richard Preston
The Ebola virus invades the United States in the following nonfiction book that will cause you to squirm in your seat. Don’t mind being slightly creeped out? This is right down your alley!
A highly infectious, deadly virus from the Central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There is no cure.
In a few days, 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic “hot” virus. The Hot Zone tells this dramatic story, giving a hair-raising account of the appearance of the rare and lethal viruses and their “crashes” into the human race.
Shocking, frightening, and impossible to ignore, The Hot Zone proves that truth really is scarier than fiction.
Availability
The Hot Zone is available through Amazon. You can purchase the hard copy or download it on Kindle.
Excerpt:
This book describes events between 1967 and 1993. The incubation period of the viruses in this book is less than twenty-four days. No one who suffered from any of the viruses or who was in contact with anyone suffering from them can catch or spread the viruses outside of the incubation period. None of the living people referred to in this book suffer from a contagious disease. The viruses cannot survive independently for more than ten days unless the viruses are preserved and frozen with special procedures and laboratory equipment. Thus, none of the locations in Reston or the Washington D.C. area described in this book is infectious or dangerous.
Spoilers!
Preston takes us back to New Year’s Day 1980. He starts us with a case of a hot virus infecting the human race. Before the virus caused its host, Charles Monet, to crash and bleed out, Monet vomited black and red fluid onto Dr. Musoke, splattering the vomit into the doctor’s eyes and mouth. Nine days later, Dr. Musoke developed symptoms, including aching in all his muscles, red eyes, and abdominal pain. As the days went by, his symptoms began getting worse and worse. As the hospital staff was scrambling to come to a diagnosis, they contacted a doctor who sent Dr. Musoke’s blood to laboratories for testing.
One night, at two o’clock in the morning, they received the bad news. Dr. Musoke is positive for Marburg virus.
From there, Preston takes us on a journey of discovery of ‘the three sisters’ and how the Ebola virus enters the United States. Marburg virus is the mildest of the three, also called the ‘gentle sister’. Ebola Sudan comes next, and Ebola Zaire is the worst at a kill rate in humans infected, nine out of ten.
My Views
I will say first off, I thought this book was fascinating, and I really enjoyed the read. It has a lot of information and history on viruses that, frankly, I never really thought about before.
Although… number one. As a Christian, I believe in “In the beginning GOD created the heavens and earth”. Therefore, I strongly do not agree with the million or billion years ago references.
I think this is a great book for historical facts on viruses and information that you normally don’t read. When I first read it, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it the second time reading as well. Just not as much. Preston adds a lot of background details about each character, but especially about the Jaax family. It provides a good overall picture of who dealt with the hot virus and from the place they came. Unfortunately, it gets bothersome when you begin to feel like you’re reading more about the little details of how they lived and what their house looked like, instead of the reason the book was written.
I’m sure now, after you read this, you are wondering why I am writing about the book if I have, what seems like, many negative points about the book. I want to give you my honest opinion, and my honest opinion is, The Hot Zone is a worthwhile read for the virus history side of it.
It shows how quickly something can sneak up on us and is an intriguing story about an elusive virus that has, in many ways and in many forms, infected the human race.
What will we do if it does again?
If you are interested in more facts about Ebola and its filovirus family, check out the National Library of Medicine website.