Thrilling Novel, Hot Zone, by Richard Preston

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Recommended: The impact of science on human life

Hot Zone, written by Richard Preston, was published in 1995. This thrilling nonfiction novel has all of it’s readers terrified from the first chapter all the way to the last sentence and I was no different. The book is based on a true story about a 1980’s Ebola virus outbreak in a monkey house in Washington D.C. The author shows us the severity of this virus by introducing the character Charles Monet who catches the virus from visiting Kenya. More specifically he visits Mount Elgon and Kitum Cave with a lady friend. When he returns home he becomes ill and his symptoms begin with a headache and backache then progress to a fever, red eyes, and vomiting. Doctors are unable to treat his illness to the best of their ability because they do not know what it is. When their antibiotics have no effect on Charles they air flight him to another hospital. While on the plane he vomits blood with black specks in it. Things get worse until he eventually dies a painful death when his internal organs fail and he bleeds out. Monet’s autopsy is that of someone who has been dead for days even though he only died hours ago. Some of the doctors who were treating Monet become infected and die as well, showing us how infectious and dangerous this virus is. The virus is so dangerous because it is not a normal virus. It is not ball-shaped like most viruses, it has tendrils like hair that tangle together. It kills one in four humans that contract it and seek medical attention. Scientists are scared of this virus and what it can do so they try to find out where it originated. They believe it comes from an island in Africa that is highly populated with sick monkeys, comparable to the origin of AIDS. Nancy Jax, a mother as well as a veterinarian for the... ... middle of paper ... ...e cave that Monet visited all those years ago to do research. Everything he sees is a potential host and an answer to how Monet and the little boy got sick. This novel was honestly scary. It was scary because it is a true story. It makes me uneasy and nervous to think about how quickly a virus could mutate, spread, and just wipe out the population. If a new virus were to come about that we had no cure for and was fatal to humans that would be a disaster. It would be a race between scientists trying to come up with a vaccination and cure and the virus spreading and becoming more powerful. Science is both an amazing, beautiful thing as well as a terrifying, ugly thing. The novel itself was well written, and intense. I was always on the edge of my seat and eager to turn the page. It was so captivating because people love reading about the unknown and the frightening.

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