In the book the Hot Zone, by Richard Preston, the first few pages are introducing the reader into the world of contagious hot agents by going through the biosaftey procedures to access level 4. In part one, Charles Monet a fifty-six year old Frenchman living in western Kenya on the lands of the Nzoia Sugar Factory is introduced, but as his story continues he finds himself greatly ill by some unknown virus. It began shortly after a visit with a friend to Kitum Cave. Of course there’s no telling where exactly Monet really got the agent from, but where he got it probable wasn’t on his mind as it got worse.
His symptoms begin with a headache, as they normally do on the seventh day after an exposure to the agent. Monet’s condition later worsens, he starts having severe backache and his eyeballs and temples also begin to ache. Soon after, his eyes become bright red and the skin of his face turns yellowish with red speckles. He was given antibiotics, but they had little to no effect on him. All the doctors then agree he must go to Nairobi Hospital, the best private hospital in East Africa. On the flight there Monet begins puking a slippery red liquid mixed with black specks.
His eyes red as rubies and a face with the color of black-and-blue. His connective tissue in his face is dissolving causing his face to droop in a way that looks as if the face is detaching itself from the skull. The vomiting of the red and black liquid does not seem to cease. The substance is known as the black vomit, a liquid composed of two colors, black and red, that compose of tarry granules mixed with red arterial blood. In other words, a hemorrhage. The vomit is loaded with the virus. His blood is clotting up everywhere in his body. He is experiencing a stroke throughout his body.
The clots begin accumulating in his intestinal muscles, cutting off the blood supply to his intestines. The blood clots in Monet’s brain are cutting off blood supply which makes him no longer aware of the pain. He brain damage has now killed what Monet’s personality was and has left behind the what of Charles Monet. Blood begins spilling out from both of Monet’s nostrils. The plane finally lands and Charles, still able to walk, slowly makes his way to the hospital. As Monet waits patiently with the other patients in the waiting room he leans over and begins puking out the black vomit all over the tile floor of
the hospital. Monet is now throwing up the linings of his intestines. He then crashes and is bleeding out on the floor. The agent in the blood is now spilling everywhere as if trying to find itself a new host. Doctor Shem Musoke was now there but had no idea what was causing such a massive hemorrhage. He checked Monet’s pulse, it was weak, but he was still alive. Dr. Musoke put the laryngoscope down Monet’s throat. Monet then vomited and showering Dr. Musoke in black vomit. It had landing in his mouth and eyes. Monet had lost a lot of blood and now need a blood transfusion.
Something was wrong with his veins every time Dr. Musoke put in the needle blood would begin pouring out that hole. It was helpless Monet fell deeper into his coma and later died in intensive care unit with Dr. Musoke by his bedside the whole time. Monet was then opened up for an autopsy which revealed that his kidneys were destroyed along with his liver. He was then buried locally. Days after Monet vomited on Dr. Musoke’s face he then started to experience back pains, but thought nothing of them. Soon after his eyes began turning red and got a fever. After that Dr. Musoke suspected he had an infection.
The backache had spread throughout every muscle in his body. He started taking malaria pills, but they did nothing. He then developed abdominal pain and thought it could be typhoid fever, so he started taking antibiotic pills. With no help from the pills he continued working, but the pain became unbearable and so he went for help from Dr. Antonia Bagshawe. She insisted they perform surgery right away. The team of surgeons pulled back the abdominal muscles over the liver only to find something strange. His liver was swollen and red and unhealthy looking, but they didn’t find any gallstones. Meanwhile, he wouldn’t stop bleeding.
After surgery his kidneys began to fail. Long story short Dr. Musoke survived his first encounter with the hot agent known as Marburg. Tubes of the doctors blood went to laboratories around the world. Marburg was later discovered in both Monet’s and Dr. Musoke’s blood after many tests. The Marburg in his blood had come from the black vomit that Monet threw up. All signs of origin began to point to Kitum Cave, the same cave Monet had visited before he grew ill. Marburg is an extremely lethal agent with a kill rate of one in four. Its one of the mildest of the three filovirus sisters. They are sisters because they
resemble each other, but they do not look like any other virus in the world. The worst of them is Ebola Zaire with a kill rate of nine out of ten if infected. The effect Marburg has on the brain resembles the effects of rabies. Four years after Monet’s death, Major Nancy Jaax and Major Gerald Jaax who everyone called Jerry, in Thurmont, Maryland are both veterinarians for the United States Army. The married couple with two children both work around viruses to find cures for each one. Unlike her husband Nancy works in level four biocontainment area where the most dangerous hot agents are which also includes Ebola.
Every motion Nancy makes in there must be precise and extremely careful. Through a single hole in her suit can let some of the worst viruses enter and kill her. Major Gerald Jaax works in a more safe level then his wife dealing with more milder viruses. Ebola is a very mysterious agent. No one knows how it travels from host to host. What kind of animal it travels from such as a rat or a bat. There is no known cure for it either. Its one of the most scariest viruses in the world that mot many scientist would volunteer to study. Its unknown if it is airborne or can be transferred through bodily fluids or if sexual intercourse.
Its uncertain how you can get it, but the moment it enters your bloodstream your already a dead man walking. Many scientist began their investigations on the deadly virus along with Marburg by starting in Kitum Cave. The cave Monet had visited. Scientists believed the cave may be the home to the lethal virus. In the year 1986 scientist Gene Johnson had done an experiment that showed both Marburg and Ebola can travel through air and infect its host. The expedition to Kitum Cave was a failure. Not one crew member or animal test subjects became infected.
The virus did not come from Kitum Cave as the scientist had hoped, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be hidden somewhere else close by. Just because they didn’t find any trace of Marburg or Ebola within the cave doesn’t mean the trip wasn’t worth it or that they will stop searching for its origin. Everything no matter how little they learned about the viruses can later be greatly significant. Knowing is only half the battle. In Reston, Virginia, a community ten miles west of Washington, D. C. , there is the Reston Primate Quarantine Unit. It is run by doctor of veterinary medicine, Dan Dalgard. A shipment of a hundred
crab-eating monkeys from the Philippines arrive. Within the next few weeks an unusual amount of monkeys begin dying. Shipments still came in as usual but almost a third of the monkeys were dying unexplainably. Dan would also see signs of sickness in some of the monkeys. He would examine their bodies after death and notice that their spleen was enlarged and they had little blood in their intestines. Dan didn’t know what could have caused such a thing. Dan grew worried about the monkeys in room F after the strange deaths. Finally after more deaths in room F Dan brought the attention to USAMRIID, at Fort Detrick.
Dan sent samples of the dead monkeys for further investigations to finally understand what was happening to them. As time pasted by Dan found five monkeys dead in room H two doors down from room F. Whatever this was it was traveling. In the meanwhile a scientist called Tom Geisbert researching the monkey samples discovered something frightening. It was Marburg that he saw in the samples. Tom quickly took his findings to his boss Peter Jahrling. Jahrling quickly notified the military chain of command. Jahrling then began his own tests for Marburg and Ebola.
The tests were a positive but not for Marburg instead it was worse, it was Ebola. Dan’s monkey house was infected with the deadly agent. This crisis was then discussed over a crucial meeting with some of the best scientists and generals to go over what their next move should be. Everyone had their own ideas but it came down to going to the monkey house and see for themselves. Some of the ones involved were C. J. Peters, Gene Johnson, and Major Nancy Jaax and soon after the severity of the situation increases her husband and his team join. Jerry and Gene immediately began planning a biohazard operation.
The monkeys in one room were put down to see if the virus will stop spreading. With the media out front they had to change into their suits inside to try to avoid a panick within the community. Everything was kept a secret from the media like what exactly was the virus just to avoid a widespread panick about having a deadly virus loose in Washington. By the end of part two the team is still continuing their investigations at the monkey house and trying to keep the whole thing as far from the medias attention as possible while they work. If they fail thousands of lives will be at stake and Ebola will run free in Washington, D. C.