The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

The hot zone by Richard Preston is a graphic yet beautiful written novel that’s includes the hardships of life, the cruelty and diversity of it. He grabs your attention with blood curdling images and uncensored views and storyline. The story reminds us as humans, that we are still animals, that we are still mortal, and even something as large as our civilization can be brought down to the point of chaos by something smaller than a cell. The novel never ceases to surprise the reader and captivate the mind and makes the brain think are we really this naïve? This book opens the eyes of the reader to a point where everything is clear and not shrouded by misunderstanding and fear. Richard doesn’t blow smoke in this story all his work is well researched and all the details even the gruesome ones are nothing more and nothing less than the truth.
The story begins on 1980 with a lonely man named Charles Monet in western Kenya. He was a man of few words but was a lover of nature, also he was no longer a energetic young man but a old middle aged soul. He worked in a sugar factory on the Nzoia River and every day he would go to work, watch the birds and animals of the forest and go home. He lived near a mountain named Mount Elgon. He met a woman whom he befriended and went camping with on Mount Elgon. On the mountain he and his friend visited a cave made by elephants, which were plentiful at the time. They entered the cave and then took off back home. Then around a week after his head started to ache and his eyes started to burn and become red. He stayed home thinking bed rest would help but the pains grew worst, his symptoms kicked into over drive as he developed nausea, vomiting , and had a fever and every day it grew more intense than the other. His face soon became a expressionless, mask that seemed dazed and confused. He is taken to a hospital in Kisumu and is sent to Nairobi hospital. But on the way he is now longer throwing up what is anticipated but blood and black pepperings of crystalloid virus. On the plane to the hospital his blood clots and clots and clots, soon the clots are lodged in his kidney’s liver, and even the brain. When he arrives he silently waits in the emergency room for he must wait due to other people who look worst but as the reader knows not even in the same league as Mr. Monet.
He suddenly goes into shock and starts to bleed out on the floor and a dctor is called to help him as Monet is dying he throws up and drenches the doctor in blood and the doctor not knowing he was infected.
After Monet died the doctor, relieved as Dr. Musoke, began to have the same symptoms as Mr. Monet. At first he confused the disease with malaria and gave himself anti-biotics which had no effect. He was admitted into the hospital and treated by David Silverstien. Who ordered a liver biopsy and tested. The results came in and it turned out to be murburg. AT first it was a simian disease then jumped species and infected humans. Marburg is a close relative of Ebola Zaire and Ebola Sudan, in a category called filoviruses. The surgeons and staff who handled Musoke were quarantined after learning he was an infected of the hot agent. But luck had favored Musoke and after w brief brush with death he recovered and returned to normal.
The novel then switches from Africa to Thurmount, Maryland in 1983 September 25 with a woman named Nancy Jaax. She was a well trained well composed veterinarian for the U.S Army. She was married to Gerald Jaax whom was also a veterinarian; they had two kids Jamie and Jason. She soon become wrapped up in a project back at the base in veterinary pathology. Her curiousity led her to the level 4 in the biocontainment department to see what happened to the monkeys that were infected with Ebola. She worked alongside Eugene Johnson, who was an expert on Ebola and Marburg. Ebola only contains seven protein only seven small changes that eradicate the human body. Soon after they begain reserahc Nancy was exposed to the virus or so she thought there wa a hole in her biohazard suit but her last layer og gloves held and prevented any direct contract.Srtly, after the incident the researchers noticed that the control monkey who were kept separated across the room of the other monkeys were infected and they grew worried that Ebola was airborn.All the while Peter Cardinal, a blond ten-year-old visits Kitum cave and soon becomes infected but sadly does not fight off the infection. And an earier case is reference a nurse named Mayinga who became infected with Ebola Zaire, but the strange thing was that no matter how many people she came into contact with she didn’t seem to have infected anyone.
The novel soon switches scenery again to Reson, Virginia there we meet Dan Gard who works for a company who ships and distributes monkey. One day he finds that one has become very ill and then more. He found it unusual and had them tested. The worst has happened Most of not all the monkeys were infected but he did not realize that until he spoke with the personal from Nancy Jaax’s base. Noting the fact that this was now a state of emergency the military set out to Reston to contain the outbreak covertly and quickly. A few members of the Decon team become ill but it was all coincidence and no one was lost during the decontamination of the building but all the monkey were euthanized. But the whole event changed the way the experts saw Ebola because some of them were exposed and yet all of them were ok , alive and well so it remained a mystery of how Ebola is really contracted.
in the ending of the novel Richard himself visits the infamous Kitum Cave. Taking every caution step he enters the cave and views it for himself. Then heads to Reston to the building of mass expourse and saw that it was aboandoned , and in ruins. Ebola has looked as if it had gone forever but really it’s just taking a break.
The Hot Zone relates to scientific concepts because it organizes into pathology. The book specifly decribes the classifications of the diseases such as filovirus and its three diseases Ebola Sudan, Zaire and Murburg. Next, the story is able to connect the cause and effect of Ebola, meaning the symptoms such as headaches, backaches, intense vomiting, fever, and eventually organ failure. The book describes in detail what goes wrong inside the body when one is infected with the disease. Thirdly, the book show quantative data, as in the virus has a ninty percent kill rate and is able to amplifies into millions in just a few hours. Also the book provides numerous models f the disease such as Charles Monet, Peter Cardinal, and the monkey who were infected in Reston. The Novel also explains the structure and function of the virus, such as its description of a string like shape which makes it part of the filovirus category. Lastly, the Diversity of the disease how it is able to infect both man and simian and other mammalian orgaisms it is in Richard Prestons words a “species jumper.”
How did The Hot Zone change science the better question is how did it not? The Hot Zone did not sugar code the story of the disease he did not sensor his story for the general public he gave every detail as he researched it. Richard preston helped raise awareness of not only Ebola but other dangerous diseases that most people know nothing about. Richard Preston made audiences realize that out side the little ball of existence we live in ther is a large, dangerous and scary world