Ebola Requiem Book Report

Gene Johnson is a virus hunter who works for the Army and eventually leads the Army’s expedition to Kitum Cave to find the source of the Ebola virus. Johnson was the Chief of Safety in the Reston biohazard epidemic. He has often been described as being afraid of Ebola because he has seen the effects

Monet arrives in Nairobi, goes to the hospital, and crashes, or bleeds out, on the floor of the waiting room. Not knowing what he had, the doctors at Nairobi Hospital rushed Monet to an examination room, where Dr. Shem Musoke attempts a laryngoscopy on the unresponsive Monet, and gets vomited on when Monet abruptly takes a breath. Days later, Musoke himself falls ill and is in turn quarantined by Dr. Silverstein, who sends an extract of Musoke’s blood serum off to the CDC for Marburg confirmation. Preston then goes on to describe a massive outbreak of the Marburg virus in Marburg, Germany, due to the shady practices of a monkey trader and his money-saving practices. Enter Major Nancy Jaxx, a veterinary virologist working at the Army base USAMRIID with level 4 biohazard viruses, the hottest type. She is working in the Ebola when, on her first day, she goes in to do necrology on a few monkeys who died while in an experiment in which Dr. Gene Johnson gave differing monkeys various drugs after infecting them with a strain of Ebola in the hopes of finding a cure, or at the vary least a way to alleviate the distress of the already affected. Her and her boss go through decontamination, and dress in the standard space suit required for work

In his book, The Hot Zone, Richard Preston focuses on an outbreak of the Ebola virus in Reston, Virginia and in multiple places in Africa. To show how dangerous an outbreak can be, Preston examines, in great detail, various other viral outbreaks, including Marburg. Preston begins by talking about a fifty-six year old Frenchman named Charles Monet who ends up breaking out with a treacherous disease called Marburg. This wasn’t known until his doctor, Dr. Shem Musoke, ended up testing positive for Marburg after Monet`s infected blood went all over Doctor Musoke as Monet was dying. Musoke survived his outbreak with Marburg.

A nun working in Zaire, located in central Africa, treated infected victims and was infected with a disease displaying similar symptoms of Ebola Sudan. After her death, blood samples were examined and the diagnosis was Ebola Zaire, the most dangerous of the three stains. Gene Johnson was in charge of the operation of a monkey facility in Reston, Virginia. All of the monkeys of one room suddenly died, and the initial diagnosis was that of a small monkey virus. After further examination, researchers found that it was very similar to the Marburg Strain.

The Hot Zone is a true story that begins with a man named Charles Monet in 1980. Charles was a French expatriate living in Kenya that began showing symptoms of a Marburg Strain within days after a trip with a girlfriend to Kitum Cave. The symptoms include: constant headache, throwing up blood, bleeding from the anus, lost of spine control, expelling of intestinal lining, then death. Charles had these symptoms and eventually died. This virus became known as Ebola Sudan because it was discovered in Sudan and ninety percent of those who come in contact with it die. In the next chapters, Richard Preston describes accounts of the Ebola virus such as the death of a nurse in Zaire. A group of missionaries were giving medicine to the local tribes and as a result, the nurse and hundreds of others die because of the use of dirty needles. Afterwards, Preston tells of an exposure in a monkey house in Maryland. All the monkeys started dying so scientists were asked to come take some samples. The virus was identified to be a new strain of Ebola that was very similar to Marburg. A secret operation was set to contain of the monkeys before the virus could spread. Later, tissue and blood was

The Eleventh Plague or better known as P11 is similar to the Black Death but 5 times worse. The US is devoured and only few remain. The P11, an unknown disease is ripping through each and every little village and big city. No way to stop it, only way to survive is MOVE! Stephen, age 15, is the main character of this story, brave and stubborn. He salvages to live, feeding of others leftover food and occasionally runs into a can of beans or something. Stephen and his dad long to travel the whole US. They instead run into a problem, the leader of their group, Stephen’s grandpa dies of P11. Unable to know what smart moves to make next they just keep on salvaging and moving along the long and harsh remains of the US. They then run into a group

The average fatality rate of patients infected with Ebola is around 50% according to the World Health Organization. The nonfiction book titled The Hot Zone by Richard Preston takes readers through true events pertaining to an outbreak of Ebola in the late 1980’s at a monkey testing facility in Reston, Virginia. The author heavily emphasizes the danger surrounding ignorance and uncertainty in regard to the viral and morbid Ebola at the conclusion of the book. While Preston makes this point evident countless times, three particular quotes give a clear example of Preston’s intention.

“The Hot Zone” by Richard Preston is a famous nonfiction thriller detailing the vivid history of the Ebola virus and the terrifying consequences of its infections. Using a rich vocabulary to add as much imagery as possible, the novel immerses you in Ebola’s history and keeps you glued to the edge of your seat with suspenseful chapters that fill you with dreadful expectation. The novel is mostly well executed in it’s aim at keeping the reader engaged while still remaining true to science though it achieves most of its power by using what seems to be cheap scare tactics and over dramatization. To a reader without a scientific background “The Hot Zone” will be an exhilarating ride, but to others, it may be a slightly overwritten drama that tries

Charles Monet: He was the first host to the deadly ebola virus breakout in Africa. He was 56 years old and was kind of a loner according to the authors interviews with people. 2. Dr. Mosoke: He was Charles Monets doctor when Charles crashed and

Flu is a book written by Gina Kolata. Kolata wrote Flu in 1999. “Gina Bari Kolata is an American science journalist, writing for The New York Times”(Wikipedia, 2016). Kolata wrote Flu in order to inform people about the terrible plague of 1918. Flu is a nonfiction story explaining how the plague of 1918 destroyed the life of families and killed more than any other illness.

The movie Contagion brings light to the fact that the number of people experiencing panic would largely outnumber new infections, however if epidemiologist didn’t exist there would be no cure for new infections and humanity would fearfully cease to exist. In the movie it took epidemiologist from the CDC in order to get to the bottom of the infection .The conclusion was that a bat who was infected grabbed a piece of banana and perched above a pigs pen, the pig was slaughtered at a market for food and the chef who touched the pig touched the first infected person which lead to her becoming very ill an passing away. These intricate details would not have been possible if it were not for epidemiologist to get to the bottom of things in order to save lives. Ultimately, fear is a factor that will always be around however, from my experience and insight of what epidemiologist really is and what epidemiologist do through prime examples from novel The Ghost Map as well as the movie Contagion helped me gain an even better perspective of how important epidemiology is in order for this human race to exist

In this paper I will be talking about the book “ When Plague Strikes the Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS by James Cross Giblin.” I will also talk about how I think it connects to what we have learned this school year.

In the medical thriller, The Hot Zone, Preston states that flawed decisions in outbreak situations are a threat to human survival. Ebola is known by many to be lethal and in recent years, has caused an interest within the public. Many in the United States have shown fear towards the threat of Ebola in the country, which has caused many to also research the effects of Ebola on the human body. Moreover, Ebola poses a threat to the safety of medical professionals; doctors must be able to safely help patients without high risk of exposure to the hot virus. Of equal importance, medical professionals involved with the treatment of hot viruses must be trained properly in order to effectively make decisions and protect all patients and

The ability to view and comprehend the inner workings of the human body has always fascinated me from an early age. It is indeed this extensive thirst that leaves me to peruse a course like biomedical science. From the age of nine I have always wanted to help treat and further develop more innovative and effective treatments for epilepsy. My choice of subjects at A Level helped confirm my desire to study biomedical science. Biology and Chemistry not only provided me with the foundation for further scientific study, but also provided me with the desire to delve deeper into many topics that have captivated and intrigued me.

Historically Ebola has had a serious impact on human health and hygiene and still does due to the fact of no vaccine or treatment being discovered, but thanks to improvements in scientific and medical knowledge the virus itself is now controllable.