I had heard a rumor of a man by the name of Monet who had become mysteriously sick with a disease that none have seen. After treating Charles Monet in Nairobi and being exposed to a huge amount of the infected man’s blood and vomit, Dr. To show how dangerous an outbreak can be, Preston examines, in great detail, various other viral outbreaks, including Marburg.

The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins

The author uses this technique so that readers can experience first-hand what it would be like to enter one. There's solid character work, but the book takes two hundred pages to establish the Army mission and never locks in around a central character or two. Nancy works in a Level 4 laboratory at USAMRIID, meaning she handles diseases that have no vaccine or cure with the protection of a spacesuit. Preston uses interviews and first-hand accounts to tell the story of the Ebola virus and its various strains.A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic “hot” virus. An invisible pest that moves from person to person and leaves a high mortality rate in its wake is bound to generate a level of fear, with or without The Hot Zone. Portions of this biomedical thriller appeared in the New Yorker in somewhat different form; it will be made into a movie starring Robert Redford and directed by Ridley Scott (Alien). It also has many sharp rocks, giving the potential for the virus to enter into a victim’s cuts or scratches.

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston Plot Summary | LitCharts The Hot Zone by Richard Preston Plot Summary | LitCharts

But then, I found out that he is known to have exaggerated not only the effects of the disease, but the specific "outbreak" of Ebola he is recounting in the book.

A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus. Despite its status as a Level-4 organism, it is non-pathogenic to humans although hazardous in monkeys. The operation ends, and a team begins to decontaminate the building, killing every life form inside of it.

The Hot Zone: The Chilling True Story of an Ebola Outbreak The Hot Zone: The Chilling True Story of an Ebola Outbreak

The book begins by introducing Charles Monet, who was the first person infected in the African outbreak. The Press is a ravenous fool, always referred to as "the eternal Victorian Gent": when Walter Cronkite's voice breaks while reporting a possible astronaut death, "There was the Press the Genteel Gent, coming up with the appropriate emotion.My first introduction to the virus was in the following year, when popular media and news outlets across the United States picked up the story as Ebola became less of a foreign illness and more of a true threat to the nation’s health in the event that someone happened to carry it back from Africa.