The Hot Zone Sparknotes

The Hot Zone: A Terrifying New Story (1995) written by Richard Preston describes the history and terrifying outbreak of several strains of level 4 biosafety hot agents specifically including, Ebola. Preston strategically divides his novel into four parts; “The Shadow of Mount Elgon”, “The Monkey House”, “Smashdown” and “Kitum Cave”, starting with some of the first known cases, moving through the progression of the disease then finishing with his own trip to the suspected home of the virus.

He starts off following Charles Monet, a sugar factory water care man living in Western Kenya. After a weekend trip to Kitum Cave on Mount Elgon, he suddenly fell ill, experiencing severe headaches, nausea and internal blood clots, displaying starlike red

speckles along his body and drastic personality changes. Sick and dying, he manages to travel to Nairobi hospital where his body and brain slowly deteriorate. The young Dr. Musoke who treated him becomes infected with the marburg virus but he miraculously survives and his blood is used for future testing.
At the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (Fort Detrick), Ebola research is led by Eugene Johnson.

He is a long time ebola hunter and selects Nancy Jaax to be his researcher and investigator on deceased ebola-infected monkeys. While at home one night preparing dinner, she slices the palm of her right hand. Later on, she works on one of the deccessed infected monkeys and nearly gets herself contaminated when 2 out of 3 layers on her right glove covered in the monkey's blood, tears. It is also mentioned that some of the blood samples Johnson received were from a young boy, Peter Cardinal, who died from the marburg virus after visiting Kitum Cave with his

sister.
Preston changes scene to Reston Virginia, 15 miles from Washington D.C.. There, a monkey quarantine facility holds hundreds of monkeys that were destined for laboratories. One incoming shipment of 100 monkeys seems normal until a third of them unexpectedly died after only a month. With growing concern, the veterinarian on site, sends samples to Peter Jahrling at USAMRIID (Fort Detrick).
Originally the scientist did not believe him and his colleague to be in any harm by exposing themselves to the sample, until they wafted the sample to check for contamination only to realize it was most likely Ebola Zaire, the deadliest known form of Ebola and they had been exposed.

In a state of panic, they immediately sought isolation and immediate euthanization of all the monkeys at the quarantine. The mass euthanization was not as simple as possible. With many major groups involved, there was much controversy over who should be the group to perform the euthanizations and how that group should carry it out. Once decided, there were a few close calls of contamination, including when an unconscious monkey woke up in the process of being euthanized and immediately attempted to bite a worker, tearing part of his space suit. Now that the monkeys were taken care of, the team took to “decontaminating the building, killing every life form inside of

it.”
When the next wave of Ebola contaminated monkeys came in, the team let them naturally die because the virus, oddly, did not seem to pose a threat to humans. Few employees were found with the virus in their blood, but yet they remained symptomless. Dumbfounded, scientists discovered this must be a new strain of Ebola-Ebola Reston-which was almost identical to Ebola Zaire except it was able to travel through the air and did not harm humans.
After studying the history and most recent outbreaks of Ebola and other “hot” viruses, Preston’s final step to finishing his story was to see first hand, Kitum cave, where the virus supposedly started. A previous U.S. expedition a few years earlier turned up nothing, but Preston had to see for himself. He knew from his countless research, how deadly the virus was so he made sure to take extensive precautions when finally entering the cave, wearing a Hazmat suit and immediately decontaminating the second he left the cave.
Concluding his adventure, Preston discusses the connection between Ebola and HIV, wondering if there will ever be something more dangerous that could potentially wipe out the entire population. With that thought on his mind, he travels back to the quarantine facility. Staring at the deteriorating building he concludes with a final warning statement that Ebola will be back