The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story

The Hot Zone explains the Ebola Virus, it's history and the effects of the virus on the human and Simian body. It tells the story of a near outbreak in the U.S.

This was a quick read for me over the summer and gave me a fairly decent education regarding this deadly, and scary virus and how it likely jumped species from monkey to human by (spoiler) monkey markets and the greedy mishandling of the animals in the research market. There have been areas in Africa where villages have been devastated by Ebola and it's three different strains.

This book is creepy as it explains how the military handles the research of such virus's in it's Level Four research labs, where the handlers need no vaccinations when studying, because there are no vaccines. The researchers wear spacesuits and go through different levels before they can enter the area for researching such viruses as Ebola-a hole in your glove could mean certain death; you'd also be sent to a hospital where you'd have no chance to infect others - you'd die alone, a most grisly death too, as you'll read in the descriptions of people who died of Ebola.

Of special interest is the story of the spread of Ebola in Africa before it became a known virus.

Scary Non-fiction told in the author's usual riveting style.

I've had this book on my shelf for at least the past 10 or so years and decided to pick it up. I thought the topic was pretty interesting and I liked the back history of Ebola and it's initial outbreaks but when it got to the story of how Ebola got to the U.S. it just got a little dull. Once the story focuses on the Ebola outbreak in Reston nothing really happens. They don't really solve or find anything and it's just really a description of how they cleansed the building. There are some interesting things that occur that when you read it you just think there is no way that that is how the military or government would handle that situation in this day in age. Hey there's Ebola in that building but lets not tell the daycare place across the street. Now the area would be clear for miles and anyone that was in contact would be locked up in isolation. But hey what can they say it was the 80s. It was an interesting book but just didn't really have enough going for me to keep me interested for extended periods of time and sometimes felt like I was reading the same thing over and over.

I read this book in two days. The first few chapters keep you reading with mixed fascination and terror as you try to picture a human being melting from the inside out. Great writing. The book slows in the last half and gets a little more technical, but non-fiction does that because all life is not lived like a novel. I think the author does his best to satisfy (not offend) animal rights people. Overall, the book is an intense look at some scary life forms that will sure keep me from poking around in strange caves.

Reading this book was a downer, a bummer, and was the only book in 35 years of reading that gave me nightmares, made worse by the fact that it's a true story.
As a medical professional, I read it to the end and it's the ONLY part of science that I'm shamed. Research on hundreds of thousands of aminals 'sacrificed' for observation, research, 'safety', theory.
If u want to read about the extensive confinement, torture and massacre of thousands of healthy, intellegent aminals, go ahead and read it.
It's not the book that is sad, it's the story that's pathetic.
No cure was found, the source of the 'disease' wasn't found.
Robert Redford called the book a 'thriller'. It is a B-U-M-M-E-R...
There's no happy ending, no highlights, not even a smile to be found.
It starts with death and goes downhill from there. A roller coaster ride into muck. The roller coaster crashes and takes peoples' conscience with it. It's a legal massacre of the aminal kingdom with no reparations, replinishment or consideration of consequence.

-ay-

Well I read the first part of this book really fast, I couldn't put it down, but by the middle of the book I felt like the author was repeating everything over and over again. He was also going into such lengthy details about the environment, which I found stale and boring. I would skip and few pages then read on.. So I wouldn't really recommend this book, I was hoping for so much more..