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| Rating |  |
| Type | Paperback |
| Release Date | 1999-06-15 |
| List Price | $15.00 |
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| Lowest New Price | $6.49 |
| Lowest Used Price | $4.84 |
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| Textbook Buyback Research Paperback Printed Books Amazon.com: Non-Seasonal Buyback Public Health Infectious Diseases |
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- ISBN13: 9780385495226
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY Together with CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Evaluate our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
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Description |
A highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There is no cure. In a few days 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus. The Hot Zone tells this dramatic story, giving a hair-raising account of the
look of rare and lethal viruses and their "crashes" into the human race. Shocking, frightening, and impossible to ignore, The Hot Zone proves this truth really is scarier than fiction.
From the Paperback edition. |
| The dramatic and chilling story of an Ebola virus outbreak in a surburban Washington, D.C. laboratory, together with descriptions of frightening historical epidemics of rare and lethal viruses. Extra hair-raising than anything Hollywood could believe of, for the reason that it's all true. |
Customer Reviews |
 Great! 2010-08-25 |
| By kristymp87 |
| The book was in good condition, as explained by the seller. Shipping was quick! |
 Good book 2010-08-01 |
| By Bio Teacher in DE |
| Book is well written - was shipped fast. Got several copies to use with my class at school. |
| the hot zone 2010-07-08 |
| By dvmoore36 |
| it is a very good book. the sevices at amazon was very good and helpful and the prices on the book at amazon.com are very readable prices. |
| Nonfiction Journey 2010-03-04 |
| By T. Lian |
In the book Hot Zone by Richard Preston, we are taken through a journey through some of the most dangerous viruses ever found. The filoviruses: Marburg, Ebola Zaire, and Ebola Reston. (A filovirus is a virus which resembles a hook. It is made simply of 7 proteins, 4 of which have never been seen before). It describes the gruesome details of what happens when a human or monkey body is infected with one of these horrifying diseases. The descriptions are far more vivid and disturbing than probably most you have seen.
This story starts out with Charles Monet, a worker whom nobody knew. One day, he goes into Kitum Cave in South Africa. A few days later he contracts a new disease undocumented, called Marburg. The way his death is described is tantalizing and realistic even though most of us have ever heard of this disease. Reading the two paged description sends shivers down your spine. Usually you can remind yourself that it's not real, but just as you're about to think that, you realize that it true.
The beginning of the book takes on you short journeys through the few people have have encountered Marburg, or one of it sister filoviruses, and then brings them all together in a final story involving a threat to Washington DC, and the fight to contain the elusive hot agent. The details describing the characters is very thorough, and rather than trying to use words and talk about everything that the characters did, Preston lets them portray themselves by using dialogue and just showing how they interact. Before long, you feel like you've been reading about these characters for a long time.
This book draws a lot of comparisons and frequently uses the word 'hot' (as in hot agent or hot zone) to really build up tension and draw a clear picture in your mind. Also, the feeling of uneasiness is amplified by the fact that the author focusing on how the cell ruptures and what it looks like. When you think of something that destroys cells so thoroughly, it sends shivers down your spine and suddenly you can feel your cells being ripped apart or sliced cleanly through.
Another thing to note is how Preston infuses the boring facts into a vivid story. When you finish the book, you know many new things about filoviruses, but besides the long, descriptions of their effects, it's hard to pinpoint where exactly you learn these new things. It feels like a dream. Like a movie with too many visual effects, leaving you with a slightly glazed look after you finish and snap out of your trance.
However, the bad thing about this book is that it becomes quite mundane because the passages drag on. Although its very tension packed, you get tired after a while without ups and downs.
Overall, this is a book that is both exciting and fact filled. Once you finish, you will have felt like you have a whole new understanding of the world that we live in. |
| Based On A True HORROR Story 2010-02-16 |
| By Timothy N. Stelly Sr. (Pittsburg, CA, USA) |
I am a huge fan of Stephen King, but the most frightening tale I've read in a long time was penned by author Richard Preston, whose book The Hot Zone, is rooted in reality and tells the story of how the destruction of the rain forests--particularly in Africa--are unleashing new and frightening viruses. King himself wrote of the first chapter, "The first chapter of The Hot Zone is one of the most horrifying things I've read in my whole life--and then it gets worse. That's what I keep marveling over: it keeps getting worse. What a remarkable piece of work."
The book, published in 1994, is still relevant, especially with flesh-eating bacterium and swine flu constantly in the news. Frighteningly, this book is about something much more contagious and lethal--a virus that kills 9 of every ten people who come into contact with it physically, or through airborne fashion. Such viruses are stored in protective military labs in the United States.
The book is written as a novel, and the scientific jargon is explained in depth but in a fashion a layman will have no trouble understanding. Preston's book also details how such a virus could be spread around the world in a week or so, and how simple it would be for this to occur.
The crux of the story is that for nearly three weeks in 1989, the U.S. Army's biohazard teams--soldiers and scientists--were on high-alert and ordered to prevent a viral outbreak unlike any the world has ever seen. Ebola and AIDS are just two such viruses discussed; but there are quarantined viruses that literally will dissolve the inner workings of the human body. These are diseases for which there is no antidote and kill within a matter of hours.
More frightening was that when the infection reappeared it mutated and took on characteristics of the common cold, only it rid the blood of its ability to clot. The mortality rate for the monkeys exposed was 80% and it did not take long for it to spread. Army investigators discovered that "Ebola is related to certain kinds of colds seen in human children. It seemed that the virus could adapt quickly to new hosts, and that it could change its character rapidly as it entered a new population."
Dr. Philip Russell, an Army General who knew about the goings on in Reston said of the virus, "...with certain kinds of small changes, this virus could become one that travels in rapid respiratory transmission through humans...Imagine a virus with the infectiousness of influenza and the mortality rate pf the black plague in the Middle Ages--that's what we're talking about." The news worsens: There are sozens more incurfable viruses lurking in the rainforests.
This book gives mankind the ultimate reality check. We are not the most dominant organism on our planet, but rather, we are held hostage by things that we cannot see nor defeat. Our existence on earth is rooted in luck and could be seen as a tenuous one. This book can be found at used book stores for four or five bucks, which is a hard-to-beat bargain for enlightenment
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