Richard Preston, the author of The Hot Zone, wanted us to believe two things. The first is that the viruses explained throughout the novel, such as Marburg and Ebola, are nature’s defense against the “infectious parasite” that the human race is on this planet. He emphasizes that the horrible viruses are the earth’s way of punishing the human race for taking over and for preventing their future expansion. The second thing he wanted us to believe is the idea that the Ebola virus could spread very rapidly if it’s airborne. In today’s society, with the use of airplanes, it’s very easy for viruses such as Ebola which are airborne to spread all over the world, and “feed” on a variety of hosts around the world. In the novel, many of the outbreaks …show more content…
At the ending of the novel, when Preston enter the Kitum cave, he describes how some powerful and ancient is embedded within the cave. He says that nature itself is unknowable and unstoppable. To sum it up, Preston believes that nature may use the line of Ebola as a kind of a cure to combat the destructive human race. With the power of nature as a broad piece of evidence, it backs up the part of the thesis that Ebola can destroy the world. Another highly accurate argument throughout this book is that the spread of the viruses such as HIV or Ebola are due to human error. Since these viruses are spread through direct contact of bodily fluids, whenever humans have sexual intercourse, eat contaminated meat, build highways like the one near Kitum Cave as pathways for epidemics, and use infected needles in multiple people, they are actually exposing themselves to devastating diseases that had no cure and instantly meant death for most people. Since Preston decides to focus on a small and peaceful town in the middle of Virginia that got infected by dangerous diseases, he is proving how fragile everyday life really is, and how a town can be wiped out with one person being exposed to one deadly disease. In the novel, even though most of the scientists took precautions such as wearing space suits and gloves, they learned that even these precautions isn’t a foolproof way of stopping these infections. The
The novel, The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston is a nonfiction book based on Ebola. The author uses many ways to keep the readers to make the novel suspenseful. Preston stares the stories from the first people known to have the virus to go more into detail. He utilizes literary techniques such as imagery, foreshadowing, and personification.
Richard Preston’s novel The Hot Zone, was based on a true story about the origins and incidents involving viral hemorrhagic fevers, mainly the Ebola and Marburg viruses. It primarily focuses on the Ebola virus’ first documented outbreak during the 1980s. As you read The Hot Zone, you will notice that it has been divided into four individual segments. The first segment looks into the history of filoviruses, and how AIDS emerged. The novel begins with Charles Monet, an elderly man who travels to Kitum Cave in Kenya. After coming in contact with an odd liquid substance, he begins to experience symptoms of the Marburg Virus (abbreviated as “MARV”), which includes; headaches, backaches, internal organs failing, and excessive bleeding. Monet travels to the Nairobi Hospital and ends up infecting the young Doctor that treated him. Years after Monet’s passing, a young pathologist named Nancy Jaax is introduced. Her story was told in her point of view as she describes the Introduction to Viruses, Biosafety Levels, and
The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston, is a non-fiction story about the deadly virus (Ebola) spreading throughout the world. Certain strains of this virus are 90% fatal, and cause horrible symptoms, such as facial drooping, muscle aches, reddened eyes, and puking. The Ebola virus was traced back to a man named Charles Monet. After Monet, the virus spread rapidly, and it was leaving no survivors.
In his book The Hot Zone, Richard Preston accounts the journey of the hemorrhagic fevers from their first modern appearances in 1967 to 1993. Preston follows twelve characters along their journey working with or against Ebola. “Charles Monet” was a Frenchman who explored Kitum Cave on New Years eve 1980 and violently dies of Marburg 2 days later. He is the first case since the original outbreak in Germany in 1967, which was believed to be caused by the shipment of monkeys from West Africa. LTC Nancy Jaax was an Army veterinary pathologist who begins working with the Ebola virus in 1983, and then becomes chief of Pathology at USAMRIID in 1989, as such she is heavily involved in the Reston monkey house disaster. COL Jerry Jaax, husband to Nancy was chief of the veterinary division as USAMRIID. He also lead the SWAT team that took over the Reston monkey house. “Peter Cardinal” was a Danish boy who died of Marburg in 1987 after visiting Kitum Cave. Eugene Johnson was a civilian virus hunter, specializing in Ebola. In 1988 he lead an Army expedition to Kitum Cave following the death of “Peter Cardinal”. Dan Dalgard was lead veterinarian at the
Chapter 1 of Part 3 titled, “Insertion”, in The Hot Zone by Richard Preston Jerry Jaax wakes up in the morning and gets ready. All of his team wore civilian clothing, because wearing space suits would panic the media. He leaves the house and arrives at the Institute. Whole crowds of people were waiting at the side of the building. He spotted Gene Johnson, he was pacing back and forth across the loading dock. There were many camouflage military trunks that contained Johnson’s gear from Kitum Cave. A white van pulled up and Johnson loaded his equipment into it. This van was headed to Reston. By now, The Washington Post newspaper had a headline on their paper saying that a deadly Ebola virus was found at the monkey house. Top-level workers were
The Global Warming theory has become increasingly popular over the past few years. Citizens of the world are being encouraged to be more environmentally conscious by others including politicians, celebrities, and world organizations. The problem with the theory lies in the fact that it has become more and more controversial as it gains publicity and attention. The basic concept behind this theory is that the earth was made with a balance of “greenhouse gasses”. These gasses are naturally occurring within the atmosphere and they essentially make the planet habitable by keeping it warm.
fast as HIV. "Ebola does in ten days what it takes HIV ten years to accomplish,"
AUTHOR: Richard Preston PUBLISHER: Random House DATE OF PUBLICATION: 1994 Setting: The setting g takes place in two major places. Reston Maryland which is a suburb of Washington DC. and the second major area is in Kenya Africa.
The language used in the book also helps give readers a better idea of some of the scientific and viral information. For example, in the section titled Total Immersion on page 58, it states, “A virus is a parasite. It can’t live on its own... A virus makes copies of itself inside a cell...or viruses can bud through a cell wall, like drips out of a faucet - drip, drip, drip, drip, copy, copy, copy, copy…” Here, Preston uses an analogy and repetition to reinforce the habits of a virus to the reader.
In 1980 a man named Charles Monet went on a trip with a girlfriend up to Mountain Elgon in West Kenya. They spent the night there and went to a large cave called Kitcum cave. Three days after his return home, Charles began to have a headache. A few days later he went to the doctors and they told him he should go to a bigger/better hospital in Nairobi. So Charles flew to Nairobi.
In his book, The Hot Zone, Richard Preston focuses on an outbreak of the Ebola virus in Reston, Virginia and in multiple places in Africa. To show how dangerous an outbreak can be, Preston examines, in great detail, various other viral outbreaks, including Marburg. Preston begins by talking about a fifty-six year old Frenchman named Charles Monet who ends up breaking out with a treacherous disease called Marburg. This wasn’t known until his doctor, Dr. Shem Musoke, ended up testing positive for Marburg after Monet`s infected blood went all over Doctor Musoke as Monet was dying. Musoke survived his outbreak with Marburg.
Over the years there has been a lot of controversy on if climate change is an issue that needs to be discussed and solved. There is a constant debate among scientist on if human actions are contributing the changing of earth’s climates. Climate change is defined as the change in average weather patterns for a specific region or Earth as a whole. This could include the change in an average temperature for a city or the amount a rainfall it receives (Dunbar, 2015). The main difference between weather and climate is the period of time specific patterns are recorded. Weather patterns are looked at over a much shorter period of time, meaning that these patterns are going to be more sporadic and change more frequently. Climate on the other had is recorded over a much longer period of time and usually show less drastic changes in patterns when compared to weather. Some people may argue that climate change is not an issue because Earth’s temperature is always changing do to natural effects. What people don’t realize is that human activity has effected the rate that earth’s temperature is changing, and just the smallest changes can lead to drastic consequences (Dunbar, 2015).
Climate change has undoubtedly become one of the most prominent debate topics in the world today. With that being said, there are multiple aspects of climate change currently being discussed; causes of climate change, the idea that climate change may be a hoax, and whether or not climate change affects human health are three of the many ongoing debates about climate change. Climate change is surrounded by negative connotations, but Jay Leno, former host of NBC’s The Tonight Show, shed some light on the darkness of climate change, saying "According to a new U.N. report, the global warming outlook is much worse than originally predicted. Which is pretty bad when they originally predicted it would destroy the planet.” Although his first statement is rather true, Leno manages to lighten its load with a less true, but hilarious, comment. His words force one to realize that climate change impacts everyone in any area of the health triangle, whether it be through a joke such as Leno’s, or directly through issues such as pollution and pollen; the areas of the health triangle include physical health, mental/emotional health, and social health. Therefore, climate change is a threat to all aspects of human health; social health, mental/emotional health, and physical health.
“There’s one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other, and that is the urgent threat of a changing climate.” - Barack Obama. Climate change has been a popular topic of discussion, because of the threat to our environment. The world will forever be changed if climate change isn’t taken into serious consideration and not in a good way. Climate change has been a popular topic of discussion, because of the threat to our environment. Climate change has had many negative effects, for example, damage to coral reefs, the increase of wildfires, and most importantly rising sea levels. The damage to our earth cannot always be undone nevertheless it can make some things disappear forever.
Global warming, we see it as sad polar bears hopelessly swimming for their lives in the ocean. It's shown as rising sea levels that can washout entire cities. It even sometimes gets turned into politics but scientifically, what is the definition of global warming?