The
book The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
was centered on the Ebola Virus and the different strains found throughout the
world. Preston was able to visit the few places where the disease is most
prominent in Africa and in the Reston, VA area. The book is split up into four
main sections: The Shadow of Mount Elgon, The Monkey House, Smashdown and Kitum
Cave. The Shadow of Mount Elgon starts off the book by giving the basic history
of filoviruses and talks about someone named Charles Monet who became sick after
visiting Kitum Cave, which is located in Kenya. It follows his progression
through the disease with all the signs and symptoms that he had and eventually
led to his death. Also, it shows possibly the first human-to-human transmission
of the disease when the doctor that is treating Monet contracts it as well. This
also goes through all the basic hazards and procedures one must go through
while treating Ebola. He interviewed and told the story of Dr. Nancy Jaax, who
had the pleasure of working with Ebola Virus in a Biosafety Level 4 area. She had a scare and was almost exposed to
blood that contained the virus, but she escaped luckily with no type of
infection. By the time that I was finished reading this first part I already
had chills simply due to the fact of how gruesome ones death is when
contracting this disease. Also, that anybody is susceptible to contracting
Ebola at anytime, it was a frightening thought. The Monkey House was centered
on the Reston Ebola Virus strain and had to do with a research facility in
Reston, VA. This facility received a shipment of monkeys from the Philippines,
where this particular strain was started, and saw almost all of their monkey’s
die of conditions similar to the Ebola Virus. This went through all the
preventative measures taken by the US Army and the Centers for Disease Control
to prevent and completely eradicate this deadly disease form the area. This led
into the section Smashdown; this went through how the Reston strain was not an
epidemic, but an epizootic. This meant that it was only fatal and harmful to
animals and not humans. The last section was Kitum Cave, where Preston actually
was able to visit and go inside of the cave, completely covered from head to
toe though. Preston talked about how Kitum Cave was the start of the Ebola
virus and the natural host animal that harbors this deadly virus lives within
the cave. Overall, this is one of the best books I have ever read in my life
and it was really struck my interest in the biological field of study. I was
actually forced to read this book for my AP Biology class my senior year of
high school and fell in love with it. This was what interested in the sciences
and is the reason I am planning on eventually obtaining my PhD in Infectious
Disease Epidemiology. It was an incredible account of what has happened with
this disease and really made you feel like you were there as it was happening.
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Bibliography:
Preston, Richard. The hot zone. New York: Random House, 1994. Print.
