The Hot Zone Ebola Summary

“The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus” by Richard Preston presents the true story of Ebola’s origin’s in an entertaining yet realistic manner. Preston does a fantastic job introducing the reader to Ebola and Marburg, their transmission routes, symptoms, and how research is done in Hot Labs.

Ebola and Marburg are filo viruses shaped like tangled ropes or intertwines snakes. Once they’ve infected their patients, they wreak havoc on the connective and intestinal tissue. Nine out of ten people who are infected die and post mortem examination find that the internal organs of most people are either “liquefied or rotten”. The origin of the virus is unknown but its preferred mode of transmission is direct contact

Such is the case of Charles Monet and Dr. Musoke. Within a week of being in Kitum cave, Charles Monet fell ill and began feeling pain behind his eyeballs. Within three days of that, he was coughing up blood, eyes motionless, and not engaged a description we see for both humans and animals affected by the various strains of the disease. By the time Monet got to Nairobi, his bowels had ripped away from his body “a sound reminiscent of the ripping of a bed sheet” spilling out of him mixed with his intestinal

This is the work that Nancy Jax, and those who work at various bio containment hospitals do. Marburg is distinctly an African virus that was first spotted in monkeys brought from Uganda to make vaccines in Germany. It was from these monkeys that the virus first jumped to humans. Dr. Musoke survived the infection and the antibodies in his blood is being used to conduct research for vaccines and understanding of antibodies. Much of the same research continues with the current crisis where serum from those who survived the disease on their own is being tested for to create a vaccine, while serum from those who were given experimental drugs is being used to treat others in the US who are