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The Ebola Virus In Richard Preston's The Hot Zone

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“The more one contemplates the hot viruses, the less they look like parasites and the more they begin to look like predators” (Preston 136). There is many different viruses around the planet; each spreading and mutating, jumping from species to species, picking out and taking down their prey. Richard Preston identifies viruses as predators in his novel, The Hot Zone, to show just how lethal they really are; the worst being the hot agent Ebola. The Ebola virus is the most dangerous hot agent, with high fatality rates, mutations, and limited survivors. Ebola is one of many hot agents around the world, however it is the deadliest. Ebola outbreaks occur in primates, and are deadly. Ebola is a filoviridae that is extreme, and in most cases fatal, attacking primates, including humans (“Ebola” 1). Ebola has mutated, creating different strands that affects different primates in different ways. There's five different mutations of the Ebola virus: Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, Taï Forest Ebola, Ebola Reston, and Bundibugyo Virus (“Ebola” 1). With so many different symptoms, which require a different attack. The Ebola virus is complex, making it even harder to fight. Ebola has intense symptoms, High fatality rates and no cure. “In humans, certain Ebola viruses can cause fatality in 50 to 90 percent of cases” (“Ebola” 1). Ebola …show more content…

This may be true but, new discoveries show that the overall statistics of AIDS has fallen. “The 2013 United Nations report on AIDS indicated that between 2001 and 2012, however, the annual number of new infections in some 26 countries dropped by at least half and since about 2005 the annual number of deaths by AIDS globally has also declined” (“AIDS” 2). AIDS has declining rates, and is no longer posing a huge threat to humans as it once did, on the other hand, Ebola is more dangerous because it is constantly changing, and evolving, making it more complex and nearly impossible to

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