Ebola In Richard Preston's The Hot Zone

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

Some scientists including Osterholm were worried to produce virus in the lab can cause mistakenly expose this virus to public. There are many cases that scientists mistakenly infected the virus that they produced, but the biggest anxiety that people had with publishing Fouchier’s research is that they are scared the ‘bad’ virologists will use it to produce lethal and contagious virus to attack human, which can

There has been an acute worry roaming about the United States concerning the Ebola Outbreak. Originally, Ebola had never touched the United States until September of 2014. (4) The disease was originated from and named after a river in the Democratic of Congo. Since discovered, there have been known cases in Africa. There have been many very deadly cases of Ebola - the fatality rate is estimated to from about fifty to ninety percent. (2) To the United States, there had never been any worry about the disease until September twentieth of 2014. A man by the name of Thomas Eric Duncan boarded flight 822 from Liberia to Dallas, Texas. Flight 822 was where it all began. Nobody had any

Prophet Abidemi had never made a false claim in his entire life. Yet, the stakes were much higher with his most recent prediction, mass extinction. A private research laboratory had been established near his village in Botswana, they experimented with various strains of viruses and bacteria, recreating some of the most deadly plagues in our history. Millions of dollars had been poured in from investors in hopes of creating and eradicating so-called “super viruses.” Because of the enormous amount of money put into the project, The NOVA Laboratory had some of the best staff and facilities in the world. In particular, internationally renowned pathologist, Dr. Matthew Schultz, was head of operations at NOVA, and had even quit his job at the C.D.C. in order to join the project. However, these experts and state-of-the-art equipment didn’t mean anything to the villagers, the lab was seen as witchcraft, a nonessential to their non-modern society; but it was much more than that, it was a threat to their entire existence. Abidemi had singled out the lab as the origin of the impending doom foretold in his visions and, along with his followers, he attempted

The fight for who can proceed in experiments to find the cure for Ebola is on. In the experiments done by the lab scientists from, Therapeutic Intervention of Ebola Virus Infection in Rhesus Macaques with the MB-003 Monoclonal Antibody Cocktail persisted in a slight solution that resulted a minor success, but a success that is well needed. On the other hand, Dr. Lipstich feels that the results may not be so worth it considering that high risk of the scientists themselves catching the deadly virus. The virus held in its early stages in West Africa, where the first host was a little boy that had died in pain. From then the virus spread abruptly from one host to another. As American scientists try to search for the cure in other diseases such as fatal fibrosis, they realized once the damage was done that there was a deadlier, possibly airborne

After reading Richard Preston's ominous and threatening portrayal of viruses in his article "Crisis In The Hot Zone," one may be alarmed enough to invest in surgical scrubs and a space suit to wear as a permanent precaution against these evidently vengeful creatures. In truth, there are lethal viruses that exist for which there is currently no vaccine or cure, and there are various

As time goes on, the world’s technology advances; with every outbreak of a hot virus, the world can use the newer technology to uncover more knowledge about these viruses. Comparing two separate time frames displays the differences between what medical professionals and the general public knew about dangerous viruses such as Ebola. For example, the codes and regulations on how to handle Ebola in the 1970’s were much were vague and lenient compared to what is established today. Medical personnel have strict rules to follow when handling such a hot virus in the global world that exists today. For these strict guidelines to be established, researchers had to have found more information about what Ebola can do to the human race. This points to the importance of conducting research and the use of advancing technology.

Everyone around the world would wonder what country would be affected next. As I have explained, a single virus can cause world spread panic and people all over the world will deal with this virus in many different ways. There are many other viruses that can also relate to the quote mentioned in the first paragraph. In fact, almost all viruses that have been discovered can relate. One common trend seen with most virus discoveries is that researchers don’t know what has caused this virus, what animals carry it, and what the reservoir host is.

In South Africa the year 2000 the health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msiming had said “Yes, William Cooper is correct about all this information about the virus. How he obtained this, I do not know. But he is correct about everything….. Everything.” The health minister was look at negative because of what he said and he received harsh criticism.

Peters, C.J., & LeDuc, J.W. (2015). An introduction to ebola: The virus and the disease. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 212(9). Retrieved from

Children around the world fear the dark because they do not understand it. Much like a child’s fear of the dark, the panic caused by the Ebola virus is largely due to misunderstanding and is often blown out of proportion. The Ebola virus is discussed in the media because it generates hysteria, even though it is nowhere near as threatening as it is often claimed to be. Do not make the assumption that the virus itself is not lethal, as indeed it is one of the deadlier pathogens in the world; however, a variety of factors contribute to making the Ebola virus a less than perfect killer; in order to know why, it is important to understand what exactly the Ebola virus is.

Therefore, I believe that this threat had given the medical field the motivation to push to even greater heights, as the very survival of mankind depended on them. With the limited technology at that time, the many professionals of the medical field were hard pressed to look for faster and more efficient ways to find new cures for new diseases. However, they did not wither under pressure and had instead tried their best, determined to find a cure. Indirectly, this has improved the development of vaccines immensely. This leads me to believe that desperation is a very powerful tool, and in the face of death, we cannot help but try our best and do the unthinkable. Moreover, due to this outstanding accomplishment, I strongly believe that this incident is an inspiration for the future of the medical field, and will be a beckon of hope during dark

The Ebola virus (EBOV) is very pathogenic, and it belongs to the genus Ebolavirus within the family of Filoviridae. The virus can cause several syndromes between human and non-human primates. This syndrome includes a hemorrhagic fever. In fact, there is a recent epidemic of EBOV in West Africa that has increased the morbidity and mortality rate of the infection to a higher percentage, but there are surges in developing their health care system to combat the infection and to control the future incidences. West Africa nations that are affected by the Ebola virus has trained healthcare workers about safety methods in handling outbreaks and has given early prophylactic treatment to reduce the dose of the virulent. However, there are two types

Viruses have become of great concern all across the world in the last few decades. The virus Ebola has gained tremendous amounts of public and national attention. It is thought that Ebola's effect on humans is restricted to. Viruses that kill people in large masses is a major threat to mankind. The only way to find a cure for Ebola is through our use of science and technology. Ebola has been starting to become a worldwide issue for the last few months but the fact is that Ebola has been around for years. It’s just that people didn’t know or care about it as it was in Africa. Now that is has come to the United States of America it has become a worldwide issue.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopædia. Ebola. N/A: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014. Web. 22 10 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1389918/Ebola>.