The Hot Zone By Richard Preston

Section II: Summary “ We don’t really know what Ebola has done in the past, and we don’t know what it might do in the future.” (p.49) According to Eugene Johnson, a civilian virus hunter, specializing in Ebola, the essence of the virus itself is one whose existence is still unintelligible to humans. The knowledge of the nature of this virus, as well as Marburg the “gentle sister” of the three filovirus sisters (Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, and Marburg), remains questionable today. In his book, The Hot Zone, Richard Preston shares a horrifying account of the hideous outbreaks of these recognized deadly viruses, in particular the appearance of a lethal virus in the outskirts of Washington, DC. It began in October of 1989, when Hazleton Research Products accepted a shipment of a hundred wild monkeys from the Philippines. The monkeys were crab-eating monkeys, a species that resided in the coastal rain forests on the island of Mindanao. They arrived at the Reston monkey house on Oc...