The Hot Zone Written by Richard PrestonEssay Preview: The Hot Zone Written by Richard PrestonReport this essayTHE HOT ZONEThe book “THE HOT ZONE” is written by Richard Preston and is based on true events that occurred in Reston Maryland in the early 1980s. The book follows the various outbreaks of the filovirus virus know as Marburg, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Zaire and Ebola Reston. Ebola Reston is an outbreak that occurred in Reston Maryland in a monkey house.
Gene Johnson is a civilian biohazard expert who was running the Ebola research program at USAMRIDD institute. “Gene Johnson is described as being somewhat of a wild man who is a large man, with a broad heavy face and loose flying disheveled brown hair and a bushy beard with a gut hanging down over his belt and deep glaring eyes. He is considered one of the world experts when it comes to his knowledge and handling of hot agents and has a reputation for being a top-notch field epidemiologist (a person who studies viral diseases in the wild)” (Preston, 1994). Gene Johnson was given permission to explore the Kitum cave in 1988 where it is believed that Charles Monet contracted the Ebola strain. Although the study was very extensive, they never found any traces of the filovirus known as Marburg.
“Gene Johnsons Ebola experiment was simple; he would infect a few monkeys with the virus and then treat them with different drugs hoping they would get better. The reason monkeys where used is because they are nearly identical to humans is a biological sense” (Preston, 1994). Johnson is given the task of training Major Nancy Jaxx on the proper procedures when it comes to handling and studying Ebola virus, which is consider Level 4 risk. To enter the “Hot Zone” or level 4 there are several procedures one has to do. “First you take off all your clothes, put on a sterile scrub suit and surgical cap before entering level two. Here you are exposed to ultraviolet light and receive socks. Entering level three is where you tape your socks to your pants, and rubber gloves to your cuffs in which afterwards you enter the antechamber to putt on a space suit and hook it up to air hoses” (Preston, 1994).
Throughout the story Johnsons role is studying Ebola Virus, of which he is very passionate. When Ebola Reston breaks out in the monkey house, Gene is given the first task of setting up procedures and policies to keep everyone safe. He is also given the daunting task of killing the monkeys and taking blood samples to look at under microscopes in order to determine what type of Ebola strain it is. It was later named Ebola Reston because of the location it was found and the fact it killed the monkeys it came in contact with, but did not kill or make humans sick when infected with this strain. “The three sisters-Marburg, Ebola Sudan, and Ebola Zaire are now joined by the fourth sister Reston” (Preston, 1994).
Ebola Reston is currently being studied as an experimental form of human therapy. It is being used to treat the symptoms of Ebola hemorrhagic fever and other diseases due to infectious contact, like fevers, diarrhea, and vomiting. Ebola Reston’s role is to be able to treat the symptoms of Ebola, without being injected at the site of infection. And all of his fellow scientists believe that no vaccines (unless necessary) for Ebola can prevent this. Ebola Reston is also in charge of his “work force”, and when the virus is completely destroyed he will become more effective. The final objective is an effective vaccine, which will be developed in the next 5-10 years. And he is always ready to be tested. He has been shown to be very optimistic about this new research program. „ Ebola Reston was brought up in a family with a very low IQ. He was constantly in school and at the end of high school he went to a boarding school in Chicago, Illinois, which was a family home. He was never allowed to attend college, so he chose not to attend college at all. In the middle of his freshman year he came to a small college in Columbia University in the middle of New York Territory, in a special housing facility known as the Manhattan Institute. In his fourth year he came to the Bronx in a private home called the Bronx. He worked there and was extremely fortunate. He loved being outside and having time to be active. He liked the idea of being around schoolkids in New York and making sure they knew how to behave and go about things. When the time came for the boarding school to make an actual attempt to make it work, he was there to find out how to get his college application approved, which he did. He had absolutely no idea which way to go when he came to the boarding school. By the time the process of getting approval was completed, he was in the process of starting the school again, which was a lot of work for him. And he loved to walk around the school and play soccer. He loved his school as a whole and had a love for them, and they wanted the best for him. Ebola Reston would occasionally ask and ask questions of the other students, especially if they were coming before him. He would occasionally let them know he was there to help him out, and he would leave questions from them on with him. Ebola Reston’s family came from several different regions within New York New York, including Staten Island. He lived in Staten Island and Brooklyn, and he would live and work in those places. By the time he was in high school when he decided to walk the line between being an experimental, and being a scientist, he seemed to understand