The Hot Zone by Richard Preston :: Book Report The Hot Zone

The Hot Zone by Richard PrestonIn October of l989, Macaque monkeys, housed at the Reston PrimateQuarantine Unit in Reston, Virginia, began dying(p) from a mysterious disease at analarming rate. The monkeys, imported from the Philippines, were to be sold aslaboratory animals. Twenty-nine of a shipment of one hundred died within a month.Dan Dalgard, the veterinarian who cared for the monkeys, feared they were dyingfrom Simian Hemorrhagic Fever, a disease lethal to monkeys but harmless tohumans. Dr. Dalgard decided to enlist the aid of the United States Army MedicalResearch bring of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) to help diagnose the case.On November 28th, Dr. Peter Jahlring of the Institute was in his lab testing a virus culture from the monkeys. Much to his horror, the blood tried positivefor the deadly Ebola Zaire virus. Ebola Zaire is the most lethal of all strainsof Ebola. It is so lethal that nine forbidden of ten of its victims die. Later, thegeniuses at USAMRIID found out th at it wasnt Zaire, but a new strain of Ebola,which they named Ebola Reston. This was added to the list of strains EbolaZaire, Ebola Sudan, and now, Reston. These are all level-four hot viruses. Thatmeans there are no vaccines and there are no cures for these killers.In 1976 Ebola climbed out of its primordial hiding place in the junglesof Africa, and in two outbreaks in Zaire and Sudan wiped out six hundred people.But the virus had never been seen outside of Africa and the consequences ofhaving the virus in a busy suburb of Washington DC is too terrifying tocontemplate. Theoretically, an airborne strain of Ebola could emerge and locomotethe world in about six weeks. Ebola virus victims usually crash and bleed, amilitary term which literally means the virus attacks every harmonium of the bodyand transforms every part of the body into a digested slime of virus particles.A big point that Preston wanted to get across was the fact that the customarythinks that the HIV virus is quite possibly the most horrible virus on Earth,when no one takes into mind the effects and death of the victims of Ebola.Preston shows how Ebola and Marburg (a close sex act of Ebola) is one hundredtimes more contagious, one hundred times as lethal, and one hundr ed times asfast as HIV. Ebola does in ten days what it takes HIV ten years to accomplish,wrote Richard Preston. The virus, though, has a hard time spreading, because the