The Hot Zone The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston, is an exploration of the discovery and evolution of the three filovirus “sisters”: Marburg, Ebola Sudan, and Ebola Zaire. The book begins by introducing Charles Monet, a factory-maintenance worker in Western Kenya. He decides to go on an expedition up Mount Elgon with a woman in search of animals and birds to watch. They come across Kitmur cave, explore it, and trek back down the mountain. A few days later, Monet begins to feel sick, so he goes to the hospital. They don’t know what’s wrong, and send him on an airplane to the much larger Nairobi hospital. This is important, because it brings the (then unidentified) Marburg virus aboard the commercial air system, exposing possible thousands of …show more content…
Monet arrives in Nairobi, goes to the hospital, and crashes, or bleeds out, on the floor of the waiting room. Not knowing what he had, the doctors at Nairobi Hospital rushed Monet to an examination room, where Dr. Shem Musoke attempts a laryngoscopy on the unresponsive Monet, and gets vomited on when Monet abruptly takes a breath. Days later, Musoke himself falls ill and is in turn quarantined by Dr. Silverstein, who sends an extract of Musoke’s blood serum off to the CDC for Marburg confirmation. Preston then goes on to describe a massive outbreak of the Marburg virus in Marburg, Germany, due to the shady practices of a monkey trader and his money-saving practices. Enter Major Nancy Jaxx, a veterinary virologist working at the Army base USAMRIID with level 4 biohazard viruses, the hottest type. She is working in the Ebola when, on her first day, she goes in to do necrology on a few monkeys who died while in an experiment in which Dr. Gene Johnson gave differing monkeys various drugs after infecting them with a strain of Ebola in the hopes of finding a cure, or at the vary least a way to alleviate the distress of the already affected. Her and her boss go through decontamination, and dress in the standard space suit required for work
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
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
China, India, and parts of the Middle East illustrate what happens when flat and crowded collide. We are transitioning from a world population in which one billion people live an “American” lifestyle to one where three billion live an “American” lifestyle. One of high consumption, Europe and Japan demonstrate that it is possible to live a middle class life with much less per capita consumption than the United States. If Americans do not redefine what a middle class lifestyle is, we will run out of space on this earth. The nature of American capitalism is aggressive, filled with greed and ample to make as much money as possible. The energy,
This book is an honest account of life in Leavenworth Prison, Kansas based on interviews with notorious inmates and numerous other individuals. The book begins with introducing inmates such as Carl Bowles, Dallas Scott and William Post and offers insight information on the cultural aspect inside the prison itself. Once the basics are known to the reader, the author Pete Earley, develops the character of the prisoners and thus of the penitentiary as a whole.
fast as HIV. "Ebola does in ten days what it takes HIV ten years to accomplish,"
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.
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
In the first two chapter of part one of The Hot Zone started of about the day to day life of Charles Monet, and how it got sick leading up to his death and Doctor Musoke get sick after Monet's vomit got in his eye and mouth. The author gives a brief overview of what Monet's live was Luke after he returned from his trip with his lady friend and got sick, then died. While doing the author posed questions as to why and how Monet got so sick that fast. The author was trying to show the reader that even something sliding your hand over a surface or in something can possibly make you sick. The author's purpose for writing these two chapters was to show how quickly a life can change and can have a domino effect. As Monet's life went from going to
The Hot House Life inside Leavenworth prison was writing in 1987-1989 by Peter Earley. Leavenworth has been one of the oldest and most dangerous maximum security facilities in the nation. The author introduces us with 6 prisoners and a couple of wardens. The book captures all the problems prisoners came across and experiences they had to go through.
The mystery of the Ebola virus inspired this article that depicts the search for the virus’s source. Ebola is known as a zoonotic virus meaning it can affect many species of animals. This also means that its source comes from one or more species of animals that carry and transmit the disease without dying. This animal that holds the disease is known as a reservoir host. The article focusses on research on finding the reservoir host. Many cases of Ebola have been reported and studied. All reports have a common source of the initial sick individual having some connection with a cave or forest. This like another similar virus, Marburg, have its beginnings of its outbreaks with hunters or explorers. Marburg’s reservoir host has been determined to be a species of fruit bat. Many researchers agree that some form of bat is the host of Ebola, but with little research and not enough funding to conduct a viable research, this cannot be proven. Signs of bats include the viruses first know victim, Emile Ouamouno. A young boy, Emile was known to have played in and by a tree that later was discovered to be home to Angolan free-tailed bats. Later, research by Leendertz on different species of bats showed that RNA fragments of the Ebola virus were found in several species of fruit bats. While it can be concluded that bats serve as some chain in the Ebola infection,
In a country where Divorce is more normalized than ever before, one can be guilty of neglecting to consider the pain it can cause, not just the couple, but also their children. The short story “Hot or Cold” by Maile Meloy is a remembrance from the author's life which communicates the divorce of her parents represented in a nostalgic memory from her past. In the piece, the author’s young self plays in a van while her parents deal with an unexpected encounter with a bear. After a brief chase, the parents escape and the family drives away. The author masterfully develops the story by hinting at the nature of the parents relationship by adding clever metaphors, until it is apparent that the parents eventually divorce and that the story is only a dream. In the short story, the author utilizes juxtaposition, a motif, and metaphors, to suggest that memories create narratives, true or otherwise, that help one comprehend events that are otherwise incomprehensible.
My favorite non-fiction piece is The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, which tells the (mostly) true story of how a case of hemorrhagic fever spread as well as the extensive process involved in finding and implementing cures. Growing up with two parents involved in medicine left me assuming that I knew the expanse of every field. The areas of pathology and epidemiology, however were completely new to me. The realization that the monstrous disease was based on something real was a wake up call of sorts that inspired me to delve into epidemiology and public health. I had never truly felt passionate or even remotely confident about my plans for the future, but this new knowledge gave me a foundation to build on. Of course the book was entertaining
This summer I’ve read the book Heat by Mike Lupica. This baseball themed book is a out of the park excitement. It’s about a 12 year old cuban boy named Michael who is newly orphaned but loves to throw killer heat. But everything goes downhill when Michael can't prove his age by a lost birth certificate and gets kicked off the team. Michael tries to do his best by supporting the team by the sidelines. It gets worst, since his brother Carlos is only 17, they have to stay in the shadows so they don't get separated into foster homes.
The filovirus family encompasses two genera: Ebolavirus and Marburgvirus; note that filoviruses are zoonotic, and have recently been traced to some species of African bats (CDC 2014). Currently, there are four species of ebolavirus that cause disease in humans: Ebola virus, Sudan virus, Tai Forest virus, and Bundibugyo virus (CDC 2015 B, 1). For the purposes of this scenario, Ebola virus will be the agent of focus and use. Symptoms of Ebola virus infection range from common illness characteristics, such as fever and fatigue, to the more detrimental characteristics of unexplained bleeding, vomiting, diarrhea, and body pains; symptoms can appear anywhere from two days to three weeks after exposure (CDC 2015 B, 1). Transmission of infection occurs through direct contact between an individual’s mucous membranes or broken skin and body fluids of an infected person (CDC 2015 A). Body fluids can include sweat, saliva, blood, semen, and urine, amongst several others. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that “Although … the viruses display some capability of infection through small-particle aerosols, airborne spread among humans has not been clearly demonstrated”