The Hot Zone

Infobox Book
name = The Hot Zone


author = Richard Preston
country = United States
language = English
cover_artist =
publisher = Anchor
release_date = 1994
media_type = Print (Paperback and Hardback)
pages = 422
isbn = ISBN 0-385-47956-5

"The Hot Zone, A Terrifying True Story " is a best-selling [cite web | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E3DA1E39F937A35755C0A963958260 | title = Best Sellers: June 4, 1995 | accessdate = 2008-09-29 | work = The New York Times Book Review | publisher = The New York Times | location = New York | language = English] 1994 non-fiction bio-thriller by Richard Preston about the origins of incidents involving hemorrhagic fevers and both the Ebola and Marburg viruses. The basis of the book was an article written by Preston for his 1992 "New Yorker" article "Crisis in the Hot Zone".

The filoviruses Ebola and Marburg are both Biosafety Level 4 agents (because they are extremely lethal to humans and very infectious), that are often found in central Africa. Along with describing the history of these two illnesses, Preston describes an incident in which Ebola was suspected to be found in a Reston, Virginia, monkey storage facility.

Synopsis

The book is divided into four sections:

* "The Shadow of Mount Elgon", delves into the history of these infective agents as well as speculation about the origins of AIDS. Preston accounts the story of "Charles Monet" (a pseudonym), who caught Marburg from a cave nearby his home in central Africa. The author describes in great detail the progress of the disease, from the initial headache and backache, to the final stage in which Monet's internal organs fail and he "bleeds out" (i.e., hemorrhages extensively) in a waiting room in a Nairobi hospital.
* The discovery of Ebola Reston virus among imported monkeys in Reston, Virginia
* More on the Reston outbreak, which involved a strain of the virus that does not affect humans but which can spread by air, and is very similar to its cousin the Ebola Zaire virus.
* The aftermath of the "Ebola scare"

Due to the detailed and graphic descriptions of the effects of exotic tropical diseases, as well as the revelation that Ebola was found a few miles away from Washington D.C., "The Hot Zone" was hailed by many as a chilling and accurate story of lethal viruses and their encounters with humans. [cite web
url=http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/12/160744.php
title=Ebola, Marburg and HIV-AIDS: The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
accessdate=2008-07-30
last=Olsen
first=Eric "DrPrat"
date=2005-05-12
publisher=Blog critic magazine] [cite web
url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1510/is_n85/ai_17540105#continue 4
title=The Hot Zone. - book reviews
accessdate=2008-07-30
last=Glantz
first=Robert
year=2005
publisher=BNET]

Joseph B. McCormick

Joseph B. McCormick, M.D, worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1974, and was made chief of the Special Pathogens Branch in 1982. He was responsible for the creation of the Level 4 containment structure at the CDC in Atlanta.

Joseph McCormick was a character in Richard Preston's non-fiction thriller The Hot Zone.

Joseph McCormick, his wife Susan Fisher-Hoch, together they wrote the book "".

Reception

* In his blurb, Stephen King called the book, "one of the most horrifying things I've ever read."
* Because Preston's writing style is that of a "science fact" thriller, some critics [cite web
url= http://www.haverford.edu/biology/edwards/disease/reviews/jostR.html
title= The Hot Zone
accessdate= 2008-08-01
last= R.
first= Jost
year= 1992
publisher= Haveford University] accused Preston of dramatizing and exaggerating the effects of an Ebola infection and embellishing facts with his own imagination. Since its publication over a decade ago, however, "The Hot Zone" is generally regarded as a nonfiction work and acknowledged for its masterful dramatization.Who|date=September 2008
* "The Hot Zone" served as the loose basis of the Hollywood movie "Outbreak" (1995) about military machinations surrounding a fictional "Motaba virus."

See also

* C.J. Peters
* Hot zone (environment)
* United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* cite book
last=Moeller
first=Susan D.
title=Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death
accessdate=2008-08-01
edition=1
year=1999
month=August
publisher=New York: Routledge
isbn=978-0415920988
pages=p. 82

Further reading

* cite book
last=McCormick M.D.
first=Joseph B.
authorlink=Joseph B. McCormick
coauthors=Fisher-Hoch M.D., Susan
editor=
others=Horvitz, Leslie Alan
title=Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC
origdate=
origyear=1996
origmonth=June
url=
format=
accessdate=2008-08-02
accessyear=
accessmonth=
edition="Updated edition" 3rd
date=
year=1999
month=
publisher=Barnes & Noble
location=
language=
isbn=9780760712085
oclc=
doi=
id=
* cite book
last=Preston
first=Richard
authorlink=Richard Preston
title=The Hot Zone, A Terrifying True Story
origdate=
origyear=1994
origmonth=
url=
format=
accessdate=2008-08-02
edition=
series=
volume=
date=1995-07-20
publisher=Anchor Books (Random House), Sagebrush Education Resources, Tandem Library Books
location=
language=
isbn=0-385-47956-5
oclc=
doi=
id=

External links

* [http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9510/emerging_diseases/ CNN Article on Ebola]
* [http://www.nyas.org/biodef/speakers.asp Joseph B. McCormick, MD] at New York Academy of Sciences