Gripping Reality
There are many challenges, and day-to-day obstacles that may challenge ones comfort zone. Not often can you find a book that challenges that zone. Richard Preston writes a gripping novel, The Hot Zone, about the deadly Ebola virus. Through gripping detail and realism, Preston accomplishes informing the reader, and challenges the comfort zone, about the Ebola virus between 1967 and 1993.
Throughout this 26-year time period, several people became infected with Ebola. Preston first introduces a French man, Charles Monet. Monet had a submissive personality, and only seemed to connect with women. Following a climbing trip from Mount Elgon with one of his mistresses, Monet came down with a headache, and died. However a headache was not the only symptoms Monet had. “He leans over head on his knees, and brings up an incredible quality of blood from his stomach and spills it onto the floor. With a gasping groan, he falls unconscious. Then comes a sound like a bed sheet being torn in half, which is the sound for his bowls opening and venting blood”(23). As if this wasn’t a horrifying experience for a man to go through, this was not the beginning, nor the end to this virus.
Fighting her way to the top, Lt. Col. Nancy Jaax, worked as a Biosafety Level 4 veterinary pathologist. As Level 4 pathologist, Jaax wore a space-type suit, and worked with extremely lethal airborne viruses. The space suit is the only thing that keeps Jaax safe from these deadly viruses. During the dissection of an Ebola infested monkey, the unthinkable happens. “She glanced down. Her glove. It was drenched in blood, Ebola blood, but now she saw the hole. It was a rip across the palm of the outer glove on her right hand”(87). The reader, and probably even Lt. Col. Nancy Jaax knows the painful, and grotesque death that will soon follow.
Preston goes into great detail on each case, causing the reader to cringe at the reality that these cases happened to real people. Even amid today’s technology and medical advances things such as: “He coughs a deep cough and regurgitates something into the bag… his lips are smeared with something slippery and red, mixed with black specks, as if he has been chewing coffee grounds”(17).
Nine days later Andrew’s health conditions worsens and he is seen covered with lesions. He is feverish, vomiting, etc. He works hard at home to conceal the severity of his illness. Even with his illness, he manages to pull the case documents together and is ready to go to court. His friends help...
The novel, “The Hot Zone”, by Richard Preston, is an extraordinary tale about a virus called the Ebola virus. The author interviews a number of different people that all had encounters with the virus and records their stories. He is very interested by what they tell him and throughout the novel he is always seeking to find more information about it. There were many different encounters in this book but in my summary I am going to explain the ones that interested me the most.
After the death of Charles Monet, the stage is set for much more to come. At the time, Monet’s death was considered unknown, because the Ebola virus was not known about at the time. Medication and antibiotics have no effect on someone with the virus, so obviously it’s pretty serious. Ebola is probably one of the most disgusting things anyone could ever imagine. What is basically does is turn your internal organs into liquid that then pours out of every single hole in your body, even the pores in your skin. Another effect of this virus is coughing up your own blood. This happens because the blood clots in your arteries and veins, which forces it to come out of your mouth and other areas. Eventually your skin will just explode from the pressure of all the blood built up in-between your skin and flesh. This virus can be very deceiving because it has the regular symptoms of diseases like malaria and typhoid fever, but it can kill you within a matter of 10 days.
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.
Murphy, Jim. An American Plague: the True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. New York, NY: Clarion Books, 2003. Print.
Swenson, Robert. “Plagues, History, and AIDS.” American Scholar 57.2 (1988): 183-200. Academic Journal. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.
The medical field is a vast land of beauty but with great beauty comes immense horror. There are many deadly viruses and diseases found in the medical field. In the novel, The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, the author discusses the many deadly viruses found in the field. The viruses are widespread due to the errors that occur when the viruses are in the presence of human beings. The effects of the errors performed by the human race include a decrease in population and wildlife. The viruses are spread in many different ways in the novel, but all are due to human mistakes.
The story begins with the tale of a French man, Charles Monet, who lived on a plantation in western Kenya. He enjoyed the outdoors, so for the New Year’s he planned a camping trip with one of his women friends. They drove to Mount Elgon and spent the night in a large cave called Kitum Cave. After his trip to Mount Elgon, he felt completely normal and was able to return to his job. Then seven days later, Monet had massive headaches that would not seem to go away. These headaches caused back aches and aspirin failed to work. Little did Charles Monet know that these were the first symptoms of the deadly virus within him. Three days after the headaches, the fevers came along with nausea and vomiting. Charles Monet’s personality began to transform and he became a completely different but frightening person. Doctor’s sent him to a large hospital in Nairobi to treat his worsening sickness. He travelled alone and throughout the flight, was vomiting blood mixed with a black liquid. After his long flight, he waited in the waiting room at Nairobi hospital, barely being able to talk to anyone. Finally Charles Monet lost all control of his body and he began vomiting large amounts of blood along with intestinal lining. He became a human virus bomb.
Preston’s imagery helps paint the image of the true horrors that the Ebola virus brings. One victim of the virus, Charles Monet, was exposed to “black and red vomit”, “[dissolving] connective tissue”, and “blood clots” leaving the reader with a sense of horror and fright when confronted with the power which such a small virus may possess. This newly found knowledge lends to the thought that the human race must research and understand the virus so that we as a civilization can prevent sickening fate that was Charles Monet’s. The imagery also paints a sinister picture of the virus such as when the Ebola virus was described as “snakes” due to their form(137). The idea of a snake frightens many people due to their dangerous nature, which
The theme of Richard Preston's Hot Zone seems deal with man's one predator, the invisible one, the one thing that man cannot seek out and conquer, the one that lurks unseen and undetected in the shadows waiting for a warm body to make its new breeding ground in, with total disregard for person, social class, or status. We are "meat", as the biologists at the USAMRIID Institute stated, no names, no faces, no "individuality", the virus rips through our bodies with no thought, mechanical reproducers who sabotage our cells and used them as incubators until their "offspring" replicate to the point the cell wall bursts, releasing hundreds of new virus particles. Literally thousands of these "killers", as humans see them can be held on the point of an ink pen.
The early symptoms of Ebola hemorrhagic fever are characterized by high fever, chills, malaise and myalgia. The next phase of the disease is characterizes by hematemesis, (the vomiting of blood), diarrhea with blood, abdominal pain, and drained of physical strength, sore throat, edema, confusion, and uncontrolled bleeding at venipuncture sites (Bardi, 2002; Hensley, Jones, Feldmann, Jahrling, & Geisbert, 2005).
The book jumps to a distressing story about Peter Los in 1970 in West Germany who became ill due to smallpox. After ten days he was hospitalized but medical staff did not realize he had smallpox, which is highly contagious. Preston gives vivid descriptions of the disease and how it ravages the body. Los survived his illness, but caused an epidemic that killed many others that had become exposed to him. “Today, the people who plan for a smallpox emergency can’t get the image of the Meschede hospital out of their minds.
Murphy, Jim. An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic 1793. New York, New York: Clariton Book, 2003. Print.
Ebola, a major threat to today's society, is threatening all parts of today's culture. In this paper one will be presented with six major points of analyses. The first an outbreak timeline, the next three are a basic overview of the deadly virus. In the fifth, one will be presented with what things are being blamed for these violent outbreaks. And in the sixth and final point one will be shown what is being done to better the situation.
One of the current major concerns in the world is the outbreak of Ebola. Ebola is a infectious disease that comes from the Ebola virus and it can cause death if the patient is left untreated. The disease can be managed with treatment of the patient, however. Ebola is a disease that is a major concern in the Subsaharan African Realm, and in the North American Realm,but it is beginning to be dealt with sufficiently in the Northern American Realm.