Book Summary: The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (Essay Sample)

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Book Summary: The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
The Hot Zone is a book written by Preston which traces the original happenings that engulf the Ebola virus outbreak at a facility called monkey in Reston, Virginia. For Preston to contextualize the dangers brought by this virus, he gives a background of other outbreaks that are viral, specifically those that took place in Africa in the 1980s and 1970s. Preston, in his book, argues that there is a greater threat in viruses such as HIV that are emerging. He says that the effect and consequences of these viruses on humans cannot be measured. Preston starts his book in Kenya in the year 1980, where he describes the death of Charles Monet (French expatriate), which was a result of the Marburg virus. He explains the entire situation and condition of Monet, making the reader clearly understand the adverse effect of the virus and how deadly the virus is.
In the following chapters, Preston describes the kind of outbreak that took place four years before the death of Monet. The book mentions the outbreak of the Ebola virus in several countries of Africa. Preston began by talking about the Ebola virus outbreak in Sudan and how it stroke Yu G., a storekeeper. He also narrates about this outbreak in Zaire. In both situations, this outbreak used to kill a lot of people. However, Preston, in his book, narrows down to a woman nurse called Mayinga, who conducted this virus while at Ngalemia hospital. The book also talks about the military personnel and scientists from America who spend much of their lives wearing hot agents for research and space suits. Preston states that despite all the dangers associated with the viruses, these people strained a lot, all because they wanted t develop a cure or vaccine that would help people.
Preston explains how one of the scientists called Nancy Jaax, who was a mother of two and more, so a veterinarian in the army suffered a near exposure to the Ebola virus. This was after she had tried ripping the space suit while performing a dissection in the 1983 Ebola experiment. The book states that after some years, Jaax was requested to assess a sample of tissue from monkeys that are dying of a virus that is not known at the Reston facility. Jaax identified it as a new strain of Ebola and helped the United States to contain the virus before spreading it to people. Preston states that the Reston facility was