the hot zone by richard preston?

Question

can you please give me a brief summary(if it's long it's better ) of the book hot zone by richard preston in your own words.. not copying from the internet. thank you.

Answer 1

This is from the internet because I have little time to write one. Why should I write another summary if there is one handy which is also well-written like this one!

The Hot Zone Book Summary

Do you like books about viruses and diseases? Well if you do, then The Hot Zone , by Richard Preston, is the book for you. This book is about how the deadly Ebola virus made its way through many countries and almost caused a major epidemic in the United States, but specifically in Virginia. This book is mostly about what happened when they almost had an outbreak in the U.S. and how they had to stop it from spreading. This was tough for them because they only had one option to contain it, an that was biocontainment. But this book is also about the effects of the Ebola virus and the history behind it and some other viruses. The way Richard Preston gets his information across and understandable (and there is quite a lot of it)is by being so immensely descriptive that it seems that you are in the story and in the middle of an Ebola epidemic. When Preston was describing what happened to the patients who had the Ebola virus, his description was so vivid that I could almost see the person who had the virus in front of me(and in most cases a little disgusting but descriptive). In one instance, a man named Dr. Musoke, caught the Ebola virus from one of his patients after the patient threw up in his eyes and mouth. Dr. Musoke then was killed bye the Ebola virus a few days later. Another way Preston is extremely descriptive is when he is describing the effects of Ebola. First, you get back aches, and a headache behind the eyes. Then your skin turns a yellowy tint. After this, your skin becomes covered in red blisters, which are little pockets of blood. Blood then spills into your eyes causing you to have little or no vision at all. Your skin becomes so weak after this that someone could rip it off with their bare hands. After this, your whole insides become juiced. I mean every part of you body becomes liquefied except your muscles and bones and you begin to throw up your innards and eject blood from any opening in you body. You puke up the lining of your stomach and intestines in a black vomit. Since this vomit is so acidy and bloody, the acid rips the skin from your tongue off. After all of these effects, you become brain dead and sometimes go into a coma or seizures. If you have a seizure, blood is sprayed everywhere and the Ebola virus spreads.

Preston's writing style in this book is in the first person which makes this book a lot more interesting because you see it from different views. For example,"What happened in Zaire?" I asked. This quote is a sign of first person writing because the author uses the word "I". Since this book is in the first person, it makes it seem like people can relate to this story because the other really did these things and new some of these people.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes gross science and or viruses or disease. This really puts it into perspective that the United States isn't impenetrable to diseases. If someone really likes microbiology or epidemiology, then this is the book for them because it gives great examples of different diseases, including aids, yellow fever, Ebola, and many more. If you are interested in viruses an diseases , this book is an excellent book to read. I give this book an 8 out of 10.

Good luck

Answer 2

Hot Zone Summary

Answer 3

Yep, I like books about horrible diseases.
First he gives a graphic description of the illness and death of a man with Marburg. It is very similar to ebola, with a slightly higher survival rate. The man finally collapsed in an airport waiting area, in a pool of vomited black blood. In the language of the medical people, he "crashed and bled out."
Ebola and marburg are not spread by casual contact. But if you get stuck with a needle that was previously stuck into a person with ebola, or if an ebola patient vomits in your face, you are in trouble.
He tells the story of a young woman in Africa who got ebola from (I think) a patient throwing up in her face. When she started getting sick, she should have suspected what it was, but she wandered all over town and was in contact with many people; she even shared a coke with at least one person, drinking from the same bottle. She died, but nobody caught ebola from her.
He tells the story of a doctor who went to a village to treat ebola patients. The pilot of the tiny airplane probably would not have brought him if he had known. The dr. was shown into a hut full of sick people. He started to take blood samples. One of the patients thrashed, and the dr. got stabbed with the needle. He decided to go on working, he would know soon enough if he was infected. He lived. The patient didn' have ebola, but something else.
In Reston, West Virginia, there was a company that imported monkeys for laboratory use. The monkeys were getting sick with a suspicious illness, and they sent a lab sample to a lab. The container broke. The lab worker wrote a note to the monkey place scolding them for not packing it properly. "Good thing it ain't marburg," he said. Then he tested it. It wasn't marburg. It was ebola!
This led to all the animals in the lab being slaughtered and the place fumigated to such an extent that not one single microbe could have been left alive. The people who worked there or had any contact were blood-tested. Several tested positive for ebola. None of them ever got sick. Blood tests showed that, in time, ebola was no longer present. They got "well." Apparently it was a new strain of ebola that is asymptomatic in humans. Just lucky.
The animal place started back into business. Some time later, they started getting sick monkeys again. They had the same ebola. This time nobody freaked out. They killed all the monkeys, and laws were passed preventing any more ebola monkeys from being imported, so that was good.
This isn't really a summary, just some highlights I recall. I found this book fascinating.
Some people say the author exaggerates the gruesomeness of the illnesses.