The Hot Zone by Richard Preston Essay Example for Free

The acrid Zone by Richard Preston EssayA proficient U S journalist and rootage of the 1994 bestseller The red-hot Zone, A Terrifying True Story, Richard Prestons creative capabilities revolve around alarming disease epidemics and bio- terrorism. The look by Preston for his 1992 New Yorker article, Crisis in the anxious Zone forms the basis of this non-fiction bio-thriller.The longing Zone delineates a dramatic, cooling and realistic tale of an Ebola virus outbreak, which occurs in a scamp storage w behouse in a suburban Washington D. C. science laboratory in 1989. In this laboratory, monkeys being used in scientific experiments chop-chop sicken and die due to a filovirus. It tells about an explosive chain of lethal transmissions begins far from Washington, D.C. laboratory and allows the lab to become a hot regulate. Preston goes on meticulously about how these viruses work and the symptoms that bulge out in pitying beings. He traces the register of these viruses fr om their disc everyplacey and examines their first known index cases in detail. He as well delves deeply into tales of previous lethal outbreaks in Africa out of these filoviruses.The Hot Zone employs a intravenous feeding fold structure. The first section of this non- fiction, The Shadow of Mount Elgon acts as the exposition of the boloney. It zeroes- in on the tarradiddle of the infective agents and speculation about the melodic phrase of AIDS. The ratifier is introduced to the Marburg Virus, via concourse who have contracted it. This section narrates the score of Charles Monet who caught Marburg from Kitum Cave in Central Africa. It analyses in detail the progress of the disease, from the initial headache and backache, to the last ramification in which Monets intrinsic organs bleed out and fail in Nairobi hospital.The fleck part of the defy entitled The Monkey House portrays the discovery of Ebola Reston Virus among imported monkeys in Reston, Virginia. This excessiv ely includes tidbits on what steps have been taken to decontaminate the infected beings.The third section, Smashdown serves as the climax of the story. Here, the major characters like Major Nancy Jaax, Colonel Jerry Jaax, Dan Dalgard, Gene Johnson, and Colonel C J Peters etc must encounter the virus face- to-face in the monkey house. Some hair- raising events argon in that respect during the destruction of animals, like an escape of one monkey and failures in the protective suits worn by personnel. The fourth section, entitled Kitum Cave, signals the denouement of the story. Here Preston reflects on the origin and go around of AIDS.The Hot Zone highlights the impact of lethal viruses on human and animal population. The stars of the hot zone are these two viruses, Marburg and Ebola. These are considered to be ancient and their potential to eradicate huge masses is unfeignedly high, as more and more worldly concern encroach on the rain forest. on that point are well- take in ca ses in which Ebola and Marburg have been transmitted from captive monkeys to humans. Preston signals out in The Hot Zone that these viruses have skimed species from monkeys to humans at the time human activity is upsetting the habitat and survival of her primates. His first case history ofCharles Monet exemplifies this. Charles Monet, a French expatriate working in a sugar plantation in Kenya, becomes mysteriously ill after visiting Kitum Cave. He experiences head aches and back aches for several days before spiking a fever and vomits huge measurings of blood with black specks. Finally the virus, Marburg completely devours him. In 1989, Ebola traveled to Reston, Virginia in a shipment of a hundred crab eating monkeys from the Philippines, imported by Hazleton Research products for medical exam and pharmaceutical research. The final irony is that one version of Ebola turned out not to be toxic in humans. The author also creates an effectual atmosphere of fear by showing that do ctors, who are almost invariably viewed as being heroic, can so easily contract this virus.The Hot Zone is a Jurassic park with germs, not of dinosaurs. Here Preston constantly reminds of how tiny and how hazardous a virus is. The impact of Ebola or Marburg could destroy the entire planet if it got a grip. Within 24 hours, a virus could make its elbow room out of Africa on a plane and into such places like London, Paris, or New York and then spread out to the rest of the world. The tiny human immunodeficiency virus virus has already spread destruction throughout the human population of the globe, and this is a point the author drives home again and again. A very minute amount of contaminated blood is enough to infect a human with the Ebola virus, so those working in the Hot Zone must constantly be careful for the smallest little tear that might allow it into their billet suits.Preston makes an effort to draw attention to the AIDS epidemic in this bio thriller. The HIV virus was i n domain just making its way into the human population about the time that Charles Monet contracted Marburg. It appears that the origins of Marburg and HIV are almost similar. Both seem to have originated in African monkeys, and they undergo genetic change and jump into human beings. C.J. Peters spends some time comparing AIDS and Ebola, as well. In the last section of the novel, the author explains the idea that as humans capture and destroy more and more of the rain forests, they may light many more unidentified viruses. It is as if the viruses act as the forests immune system, which is truly ironic since HIV and AIDS destroy the human immune system.In the book, Preston emphasizes the potential of such a little beasts, that are only microns in size, to wipe out the human population of the planet. In fact, the strength and appeal of this book come from the fear evoked in the ref. The gruesome, horrific deaths of Charles Monet, Nurse Mayinga, and Peter Cardinal set the reader in tension and dread of what will happen if the virus at Reston jumps into the human population.The majority of The Hot Zone is written from the third-person omniscient point of view. The author is not simply composing characters thoughts and emotions. This book recounts a true story, and Richard Preston interviewed many people to learn directly from those involved. Therefore, the reason the author is able to be omniscient is because he has taken great pains to be accurate in his telling of the tale.If he describes someones internal reaction to an event, he is relating what that person told him. He is also careful to give credibility to everyones viewpoints in the cases where people have conflicting recollections of a sequence of events. There are a few places in which the point of view switches to first person. This is a result of the authors reporting on his interviews with the various people engaged in the crisis at Reston, as well as those involved in earlier Ebola outbreaks. This serves to remind the reader that the story is not a piece of fiction, and it also allows the author to tell portions of the story in the participants own words.There are multiple settings in the book because it spans a long period of time (1980 to 1993) and follows viruses all over the world. Much of the African portion of the story takes place in Kenya and Sudan, and the real centerpiece is Kitum Cave in Western Kenya. The story starts and ends there though under very different circumstances. On the international level, there are also references to the Marburg virus stint in Germany, and a monkey farm in the Philippines. out from these brief mentions, the true settings of the story are Africa and the United States. The fact that the potential Ebola outbreak is happening so near the capital of one of the most powerful nations on earth definitely adds to the tension of the story.The wording used in The Hot Zone is very explanatory. The novel could easily have been a litany of medic al terms and acronyms. It is a factual story involving science, medicine, government, and military. The author is concerned with drawing the reader into the story. He wants to become such a vivid picture that it is sporadically quite upsetting. Richard Prestons capacity to write literature is also obvious. His use of imagery is very successful. By the time there is an outbreak in the monkey house, the reader has been thoroughly apprised of the terribly agonizing, fierce death that awaits anyone infected by the virus. Throughout the entire story, Preston amalgamates scientific comprehension with fictional writing.Works CitedPreston, Richard. The Hot Zone. New York Anchor, 1995.Litsum.com Hot Zone Stuff. 2007. http//acaclassof2010studyguides.blogspot.com 200709litsumcom-hot-zone-stuff.html