Introduction
In the book The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, Ebola is categorized as a filovirus. Filoviruses are becoming more and more common throughout the world and we do not know much about them. Most of these diseases are destructive and the victims normally do not survive. However, scientists must be confident that there is a cure for Ebola Viruses because their research has not yet ended. The following pages show the effects of the illness and what measures have been taken.
The Virus Itself
Ebola has many ways of destroying one’s body. The virus is also so complex and confusing that scientists have to compare it to other viruses that they do know about. Preston (1995) points out, “The virus is related to diseases like mumps and rabies
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However, Ebola Sudan has a much lower death rate than Ebola Zaire. To explain this more thoroughly, Preston (1995) states, “The fatality rate for Ebola Sudan is at about 50/50, the second highest death rate within the three known Ebola viruses” (p.99). This shows how often Ebola Sudan kills its victims. Preston also explains the known origins of the virus, “The Ebola Sudan virus began in a very unknown man who contracted it from an unknown source. He then infected his coworkers who then infected many other townsmen and townswomen, going through sixteen different generations of infection” (p.97). This is evidence of the researched origins of Ebola Sudan. Preston then claims, “After infecting nearly all of Sudan, the virus moved to the hospitals where used needles were shared among patients that were infected with the virus. Ebola Sudan later emerged in great cities and spread like wildfire” (p.97-98). This shows how quickly this strand of virus spread throughout Sudan after infecting just one person. Later, Preston expresses, “Ebola Sudan was so lethal that it hardly gave itself enough time to jump to a new host. This wiped out the virus almost as quickly as it emerged” (p.99). This shows the fast but quickly ending effect of Ebola
The readers are then introduced to the Ebola Sudan case in which Mr.
Nancy Jaax almost became infected when she tore her space suit while performing an autopsy on an infected monkey. Luckily she didn’t, but danger can happen around any corner. Even though Doctors new a lot about Ebola it was still very scary and unpredictable to work on. The beginning of the book gives the reader a very description of what Ebola is and does to its unlucky victims. “Ebola the slate wiper, did things to people that you do not want to think about.
In the Hot Zone, Richard Preston demonstrates how devastating Ebola and other filoviruses can be to large populations. In the book, Preston describes true events during an outbreak of Ebola virus at a Monkey facility in Reston, Virginia in 1980. He also gives background from other viral outbreaks in Africa in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
In The Hot Zone, Richard Preston discusses the major topic of 2015: the Ebola virus. It all began in a small cave in Kenya called “Kitum” cave. What many did not realize was that this cave would change the world.
In “Out of the Wild,” the author uses definition to define of Marburg . The author used definition to help the reader understand what Marburg is and what it can do to the human body. The author describes Marburg as a zoonotic and a RNA virus, which infects bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals and which is transmitted from animals to humans. The author provides a useful definition on Marburg, which helps the reader understand the article more because without knowing what Marburg is the article would not make sense to the average reader. In “The Deadliest Virus,” the author also uses definition to help the readers truly understand what H5N1 is and the affect it can have on the world.
It is believed that the fruit bats first carried the disease Ebola. Being that it is contagious, scientists and doctors believe the disease first transferred to humans when people ate the fruit bats. With the Red Death, you died within thirty minutes. In those times, they were not sanitary. They could have had the symptoms for a long time and not known about it until it became severe, the day, or hour, they would die.
Nancy worked in a Level 4 lab at USAMRIID. Nancy’s boss, Eugene Johnson, had been researching and searching for the origin of Ebola. During a routine dissection and experiment, both scientists had discovered that Ebola could be airborne. Not only could Ebola be spread through the air, but it could also be spread through the use of dirty needles. In 1976, Ebola Sudan and Ebola Zaire were both spread by dirty needles.
All these similarities are similar to the Red Death. We know that prince Prospero did not want to be near anyone with the Red Death. I do not think that the Red Death could be Ebola. I suggest it is the black plague.
Perhaps he himself contracted the virus, but chances are that other people who came to get shots before him could also potentially harbor the virus, and therefore, transmitted the disease to him through blood contact from the used needles. This can be a possibility because the author wrote “The nuns and staff occasionally rinsed the needles in a pan of warm
The red death could not be Ebola because the time period is wrong. Ebola is a modern day disease that was first discovered in 1976. The only thing that does not help against the time period is that he never wrote in what the time period was. It could have been a million years ago, or it could have been a thousand years in the future. One can never be sure what he was thinking of,but in
They did not dispose of them properly or sterilize the needles. EBO-Z was then spread throughout YMH, infecting staff members as well as patients” (Commission). This encounter shows how Ebola Zaire (EBO-Z) has been easily spread throughout the YMH and can ruin the human population. EBO-Z will eat its victim and lead them to a painful death. The earliest known outbreak was located at Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo, suggesting that all known outbreaks evolved from a Yambuku like virus after nineteen seventy-six.
It also indicates the hospital was a surreal, almost placid place. While in An American Plague page 105 it indicates,”so many people applied that patients had to have a doctors certificate stating that they did indeed have yellow fever.” With this many people applying to Bush Hill, it would most certainly not be a calm and relaxing place. It also suggests that this place should be like the market or town square before the fever, bustling, constant commotion and always someone wanting or needing something. It also conveys on page 13-14 of An American Plague,”the skin and eyeballs turned yellow, as red blood cells were destroyed, causing the bile pigment bilirubin to accumulate in the body;nose, gums and intestines began bleeding; and the patient vomited stale, black blood.
We’ve had many global outbreaks in our world of diseases and viruses. The novel The Hot Zone by Richard Preston is about an outbreak of a vicious disease. It gives a terrifying, true narrative about an eruption of a deadly virus, Ebola, the great slate wiper, the disease that did horrific things you did not want to imagine (Preston 64). The vicious virus approached upon the people out of nowhere, when no one knew what it was or why it was happening. The government's response was very well reacted to the situation, they jumped right on the situation, contained the virus and tried to find a cure as soon as possible.
Figurative language is sometimes used to make events have certain moods such as happiness, sadness, mystery, and suspense. The book focuses on a deadly virus that is highly contagious and is very oppressive. The virus had originated from the central rainforests of Africa, then had suddenly appeared in Germany. The book describes how Charles Monet bled out from the disease in the Nairobi Hospital waiting room, how monkeys contributed to spreading the disease, the effects the virus has on the body, and how the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID tested the virus on monkeys and tried to find a cure for the virus. In The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston, the author uses figurative language such as foreshadowing
The commonly accepted explanation of the origin of AIDS is that the disease came from chimpanzees who were carrying Simmian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV). SIV is very similar in many aspects to HIV and these similarities led to SIV being accepted as a predecessor to HIV. The first AIDS strain, L70 was identified in 1959 in the Belgian Congo. It is though that the first human to contract AIDs became infected when they were cleaning bushmeat to eat. The infected person then spread the disease through the expulsion of their bodily fluids.