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The Hot Zone is a best-selling[1] 1994 non-fiction bio-thriller by Richard Preston
about the origins of incidents involving hemorrhagic fevers and both the Ebola and Marburg viruses. The basis of the book was
Preston's 1992 New Yorker article "Crisis in the Hot Zone".
The filoviruses
Ebola and Marburg are both Biosafety Level 4 agents (because they
are extremely lethal to humans, very infectious, and to which there
is no known cure), that are often found in central Africa. Along with describing the
history of these two illnesses, Preston describes an incident in
which Ebola was suspected to be found in a Reston,
Virginia, monkey storage facility.
The original Reston, VA facility located at 1946 Isaac Newton
Square was torn down sometime between 1995 and 1998.[2]
Synopsis
The book is divided into four sections:
- "The Shadow of Mount Elgon", delves into the history of these
infective agents as well as speculation about the origins of AIDS. Preston accounts the story of
"Charles Monet" (a pseudonym), who caught Marburg from a cave
nearby his home in central Africa. The author describes in great
detail the progress of the disease, from the initial headache and
backache, to the final stage in which Monet's internal organs fail
and he "bleeds out" (i.e., hemorrhages extensively) in a waiting
room in a Nairobi hospital.
- The discovery of Ebola Reston virus among imported monkeys
in Reston,
Virginia, and the following actions taken by the U.S.
Army and Center for
Disease Control.
- More on the Reston outbreak, which involved a strain of the
virus that does not affect humans but which can spread by air, and
is very similar to its cousin the Ebola Zaire virus.
- The aftermath of the "Ebola scare"
The book starts off with Charles Monet (a pseudonym), who visits Kitum Cave during a
camping trip to Mount Elgon in Central Africa. Not long after, he
begins to suffer a number of symptoms, including vomiting,
diarrhoea and red eyes. He is soon taken to Nairobi Hospital for
treatment, but his condition deteriorates further and he goes into
a coma while in the waiting room. He dies, but not before a Doctor
named Shem Musoke attempting to insert a laryngoscope is infected
when exposed to Charle's blood and vomit. Musoke later
survives.
Dr. Nancy Jaax had been promoted to work in the Level 4
Biosafety containment area at USAMRIID, and is assigned to research the
Ebola virus. While preparing
food for her family at home, she cuts her finger. Later, while
working on a dead, ebola-infected monkey, one of the gloves on the
hand with the open wound tears and she is almost exposed to
contaminated blood, but does not get infected. Meanwhile, Peter
Cardinal, a blond ten-year old visits Kitum Cave and does not
survive his infection. Nurse Mayinga is also infected by a nun and
elects to visit Nairobi Hostipal for treatment, where she succumbs.
A CDC team
arrives to collect samples of the virus for study.
In present day Reston, Virginia, a company called Hazelton
Research operating a quarantine center for monkeys encounters a
large number of subjects that had contracted a fatal illness. Their
veterinarian decides to send some samples to Fort Detrick (USAMRIID)
for study, where the samples were tested with known Level 4 agents.
Only the Ebola Zaire strain had a reaction with the unknown sample.
A team is sent to euthanize all the monkeys at the facility, but
one of the staff members of the building had fallen ill, worrying
the entire team. They later determine it is lethal to monkeys, but
not to humans. They name the virus Ebola Reston.
In Africa, the author himself goes into Africa to explore Kitum
Cave. On the way, he discusses the role of AIDS in the present as
the highway they were on, sometimes called the "AIDS Highway," was
where it first appeared. Equipped with a Hazmat suit, he enters the cave and finds a
large number of animals, of which one might be the virus carrier.
At the ending, he travels to the quarantine facility in Reston,
where business had returned to normal.
Reception
- In his blurb, Stephen King called
the book, "one of the most horrifying things I've ever read."
- Because Preston's writing style is that of a "science fact"
thriller, some critics[3] accused
Preston of dramatizing and exaggerating the effects of an Ebola
infection and embellishing facts with his own imagination. Since
its publication over a decade ago, however, The Hot Zone
is generally regarded as a nonfiction work and acknowledged for its
masterful dramatization.
- The Hot Zone served as the loose basis of the
Hollywood movie Outbreak (1995) about military
machinations surrounding a fictional "Motaba virus."
- Due to the detailed and graphic descriptions of the effects of
exotic tropical diseases, as well as the revelation that Ebola was
found a few miles away from Washington D.C.,
The Hot Zone was hailed by many as a chilling and accurate
story of lethal viruses and their encounters with humans.[4][5]
See also
References
Notes
Bibliography
- Moeller, Susan D. (August 1999).
Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and
Death (1 ed.). New York: Routledge. p. 82. ISBN
978-0415920988.
Further
reading
- McCormick M.D.,
Joseph B.; Fisher-Hoch M.D., Susan (1999) [1996]. Level 4:
Virus Hunters of the CDC. Horvitz, Leslie Alan ("Updated
edition" 3rd ed.). Barnes & Noble. ISBN
9780760712085.
- Preston, Richard (1995-07-20) [1994].
The Hot Zone, A Terrifying True Story. Anchor Books
(Random House), Sagebrush Education Resources, Tandem Library
Books. ISBN
0-385-47956-5.
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