Filo Virus In The Hot Zone By Richard Preston

545 Words3 Pages

Dictionary.com defines a filo virus as “any of several filamentous single stranded RNA viruses.” The Hot Zone is a terrifying true story, by Richard Preston, about the historical stories of Ebola and other viruses such as Marburg and Simian Fever. Richard Preston teaches the reader that nature is unpredictable and that you should always be ready for something new. Dan Dalgard, Gene Johnson, and Nancy Jaax; these are just some of the extraordinary people who have made new breakthroughs in the medical field. Gene Johnson was one of the first discoverers of Ebola and has become an expert on the filo virus. Nancy Jaax almost became infected when she tore her space suit while performing an autopsy on an infected monkey. Luckily she didn’t, but danger can happen around any corner.

Even though Doctors new a lot about Ebola it was still very scary and unpredictable to work on. The beginning of the book gives the reader a very description of what Ebola is and does to its unlucky victims. “Ebola the slate wiper, did things to people that you do not want to think about. The organism was too frightening to handle. Even for those who were comfortable and adapt in space suits. They did not care to do research on Ebola because they did not want to do research on them.” (64) Scientists have done …show more content…

The Institute has just found a new strain or kind of Ebola that was even the strain prior to it. “The institute scientists suspended that they were seeing a mutant strain of Ebola, something new and a little different from what they had just seen a month before… it was as if Ebola could change its character fast and could look like the flu.” (358) Viruses are always change and will never stop. This creates for all scientists and doctors worldwide. If you analyze something and make a cure for it, the viruses or any living thing that you tested rendering the cure