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The Ebola Virus In Richard Preston's The Hot Zone

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“The more one contemplates the hot viruses, the less they look like parasites and the more they begin to look like predators” (Preston 136). There is many different viruses around the planet; each spreading and mutating, jumping from species to species, picking out and taking down their prey. Richard Preston identifies viruses as predators in his novel, The Hot Zone, to show just how lethal they really are; the worst being the hot agent Ebola. The Ebola virus is the most dangerous hot agent, with high fatality rates, mutations, and limited survivors. Ebola is one of many hot agents around the world, however it is the deadliest. Ebola outbreaks occur in primates, and are deadly. Ebola is a filoviridae that is extreme, and in most cases fatal, attacking primates, including humans (“Ebola” 1). Ebola has mutated, creating different strands that affects different primates in different ways. There's five different mutations of the Ebola virus: Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, Taï Forest Ebola, Ebola Reston, and Bundibugyo Virus (“Ebola” 1). With so many different symptoms, which require a different attack. The Ebola virus is complex, making it even harder to fight. Ebola has intense symptoms, High fatality rates and no cure. “In humans, certain Ebola viruses can cause fatality in 50 to 90 percent of cases” (“Ebola” 1). Ebola …show more content…

This may be true but, new discoveries show that the overall statistics of AIDS has fallen. “The 2013 United Nations report on AIDS indicated that between 2001 and 2012, however, the annual number of new infections in some 26 countries dropped by at least half and since about 2005 the annual number of deaths by AIDS globally has also declined” (“AIDS” 2). AIDS has declining rates, and is no longer posing a huge threat to humans as it once did, on the other hand, Ebola is more dangerous because it is constantly changing, and evolving, making it more complex and nearly impossible to

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In response to the Ebola scare in 2014, many people evinced strong fear and xenophobia (Kim, 2016). Especially about the zombie-like symptoms of the virus. In addition how does the virus slowly kills the victim without even realizing that he’s suffering from Ebola virus by replicating and filling the body with crystallized viruses hence damaging the human cells just like a new living organism controls another’s body and killing it bit by bit. To exemplify my relatives used to live in kenya about 43 years ago they were surrounded by ill people that make them terrified and fearful of getting the highly contagious disease, therefore they left kenya and currently they live in the UAE. The most complicated part if you were surrounded by Ebola virus is to calm people down and instead of leaving the country finding beneficial solutions so that the virus won’t disperse from one country to another.

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When a virus meets a host cell, it injects its genetic material into its host, taking over the host’s

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In the beginning of The Hot Zone By Richard Preston, readers are introduced to the appearance of a virus similar to Ebola that strikes in western Kenya during 1980 and eventually costs the life of Charles Monet, a Frenchman living by himself. When Monet and his friend travel to the Kitum Cave, he returns to his home and becomes ill on the seventh day. The author then describes Monet’s symptoms and illness in graphic details, providing a sense of terror for the readers. When a doctor named Shem Musoke treats Monet in the Nairobi Hospital, he develops the symptoms of the virus himself. Due to the fact Musoke feels particularly unwell after treating Monet, he is then opened up during an exploratory surgery and his liver appears to be red and

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Ebola spreads less easily than SARS because transmission can be stopped with proper PPE and can only be passed with direct contact of infected persons. SARS is an airborne viral disease that can float in the air for long periods of time even after the infected person has left the room, making it highly contagious (CDC,

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This disease’s transmission would be spread through bodily fluid, sexual contact, blood and semen and even material contact too.. It can be transmitted very easily and very consolidated to contain. A perfect representation of this topic would be when a nurse had gotten the Ebola symptoms from taken care of a Ebola patient, Thomas Duncan. The nurses name is Nina Pham and she got a transfusion from a Ebola survivor and it seemed to work very well. Even though she was stricken with such a deadly disease, she was more worried about her King Charles Spaniel named Bentley, who also had a potential health risk to the community.

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There are drugs such as Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for persons at high risk for HIV take medicine to decrease chances of getting infected. PrEP is also famous from stopping HIV from taking hold and spreading throughout your body. It is highly effective for patients with HIV, however, they must take their medicine consistently. Nevertheless, the average HIV patient can live their lives long and successfully, this is all coming from research made to help defeat HIV. The more research that comes along with looking for a cure, it makes patients look at a new hope and making their lives a lot

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Whether an individual is professional or not, mistakes are inevitable. Most of the time, these mistakes are harmless and can be resolved. For example, a person may cut his or herself on accident; he or she can sanitize the cut and put a bandage on it. However, in the medical field, these negligible errors may determine everything. This narrative non-fiction contains an abundance of medical errors which are very crucial when dealing with viruses, especially when it is a Level four Ebola virus.

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The consequences of handling the new found strain of Ebola is extremely high, resulting in an epidemic throughout the nation and maybe even more. Colonel C.J Peters and Nancy Jaax considers the catastrophic effect that Ebola would have on this quiet, peaceful community. Many of these problems arise due to human error, in fact even though USAMRIID tells the employees at the monkey house to stop working, they don’t pay attention to the words and see the risks of entering the contaminated building. This ignorance could have caused a disaster and all the responsibilty would have to be put on the USAMRIID and monkey house. Preston makes it clear in “The Hot Zone” that the potential for a devastating outbreak can be determined by a single member of the human

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The argument that all viruses are deadly is incorrect. In the Hot Zone, Preston explained how Ebola and Marburg caused an epidemic that killed over hundreds of people and animals. In the novel, Preston also mentions smallpox and malaria. Being diseases, there are cures for all of them which overtime will eventually prove to be not deadly. Although hundreds of lives were lost against the virus, there came a cure later on.

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We’ve had many global outbreaks in our world of diseases and viruses. The novel The Hot Zone by Richard Preston is about an outbreak of a vicious disease. It gives a terrifying, true narrative about an eruption of a deadly virus, Ebola, the great slate wiper, the disease that did horrific things you did not want to imagine (Preston 64). The vicious virus approached upon the people out of nowhere, when no one knew what it was or why it was happening. The government's response was very well reacted to the situation, they jumped right on the situation, contained the virus and tried to find a cure as soon as possible.

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All these similarities are similar to the Red Death. We know that prince Prospero did not want to be near anyone with the Red Death. I do not think that the Red Death could be Ebola. I suggest it is the black plague.

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The red death in “The Masque of The Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe was based most likely on the Black Death or the Bubonic Plague. The red death and the Black Death have similar symptoms but not exactly the same. Both viruses ended in death just as Ebola (usually) does. When comparing the “The Masque of The Red Death” and the Ebola article,, I don’t think that he was talking about Ebola. But, he could have heard something about a slave that had Ebola.

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Try me, I thought. I was not prepared. In 1989, a new strain of ebolavirus wreaked havoc in a monkey house in Reston, Virginia, only a few miles from where I currently live. Ebola Reston has a 90% mortality rate and

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The Ebola virus did not start outbreaking in Africa until 1976. Up until last year in 2014 Ebola was contained to Africa for all we know, but some reports have shown it spreading. At the time when Prince Prospero ruled the land 200 years the virus might have not even been around, or just specific

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