The Hot Zone
Richard Preston 3OOpp
New York: Random House
In October of l989, macaque monkeys, housed at the
Reston Primate Quarantine Unit in Reston Virginia, began dying from a
mysterious disease at an alarming rate. The monkeys,imported from the
Phillipines, were to be sold as labratory animals. Twenty-nine of a shipment of
one hundred died within a month. Dan Dalgard, the veterinarian who cared for
the monkeys, feared they were dying from Simian Hemorrhagic Fever, a disease
lethal to monkeys but harmless to humans. Dr. Dalgard decided to enlist the
aid ot the United States Army Medical Research Institue of Infectious Diseases
(USAMRIID) to help diagnose the case.
On November 28th Dr. Peter Jahlring of the Institute
was in his lab testing the virus culture from the monkeys. Much to his horror
the blood tested positive for the deadly Ebola Zaïre virus. Ebola Zaïre is so
lethal that nine out of ten of its victims die. It is a level-four hot virus.
That means there are no vaccines and no cures. In 1976 Ebola climbed out of its
primordal hiding place in the jungles of Africa, and in two outbreaks in Zaire
and Sudan wiped out six hundred people. But the virus had never been seen
outside of Africa and the consequences of having the virus in a busy suburb of
Washington D.C. were too terrifying to contemplate. Theoretically, an airborne
strain of Ebola could emerge and circle the world in about sixs weeks. Victims
usually "crash and bleed," a military term which literally means "the virus
attacks every organ of the body and transforms every part of the body into a
digesed slime of virus particles. Ebola does in ten days what it takes HIV ten
years to accomplish."
Upon reading The Hot Zone one could readily believe that this compelling yet
terrifying story sprung from the imaginations of Stephen King or Michael
Crichton. But the frightening truth is that the events actually occured and
that near catastrophe was avoided by the combined heroic efforts of various men
and women from USAMRIID and the Center for Disease Control. Preston writes
compassionately and humanistically of the doctors, virologists and
epidemiogists who are the real-life Indiana Jones's of the virus trail. Some
like Drs. Joe McCormick and Karl Johnson and C.J. Peters spent years tracking
down deadly virus's in the jungles of South America and Africa, some narrowly
escaping death. Their work is filled with courage, brilliance and sometimes
petty rivalries. Others, like Dr. Nancy Jaax have lived rather conventional
lives, aside from the fact that they don a chem suit and work with highly
lethal virus' on a regular basis.
Preston has written a fast-paced and fascinating novel of scientific
sleuthdom. His gripping narrative is filled with horrifying and gore-filied
descriptions and tension-building plot turns. From depictions of events at a
Belgian hospital in Africa to the harrowing labratory scenes in Virginia he is
adept at keeping the reader riveted. At the conclusion the reader is left with
the chilling and fact based haunting after thought "What if?"
