The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
The virus kills nine out of ten of its victims so quickly and gruesomely that even biohazard experts are terrified. It is airborne, it is extremely contagious, and it is about to burn through the suburbs of a major American city. Is there any way to stop it?
In the winter of 1989, at an Army research facility outside Washington, D.C., this doomsday scenario seemed like a real possibility. A SWAT team of soldiers and scientists wearing biohazard space suits had been organized to stop the outbreak of an exotic “hot” virus. The grim operation went on in secret for eighteen days, under dangerous conditions for which there was no precedent.
The Hot Zone tells this dramatic story in depth for the first time, giving an absolutely hair-raising account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their “crashes” into the human race. From a remote jungle cave festering with deadly organisms, to an airplane over Africa that is carrying a sick passenger who dissolves into a human virus bomb, to the confines of a Biosafety Level 4 military lab where scientists risk their lives studying lethal substances that could kill them quickly and horribly, The Hot Zone describes situations that a few years ago would have been taken for science fiction. As the tropical wildernesses of the world are destroyed, previously unknown viruses that have lived undetected in the rain forest for eons are entering human populations. The appearance of AIDS is part of the pattern, and the implications for the future of the human species are terrifying.
For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD: TBD)
The Reason
It’s been on my TBR forever but I kept putting it off. People keep praising it though so I couldn’t put it off anymore!
The Quotes
“In biology, nothing is clear, everything is too complicated, everything is a mess, and just when you think you understand something, you peel off a layer and find deeper complications beneath. Nature is anything but simple.”
“To mess around with Ebola is an easy way to die. Better to work with something safer, such as anthrax.”
“You can’t fight off Ebola the way you fight off a cold. Ebola does in ten days what it takes AIDS ten years to accomplish.”
“The rain forest has its own defenses. The earth’s immune system, so to speak, has recognized the presence of the human species and is starting to kick in. The earth is attempting to rid itself of an infection by the human parasite. Perhaps AIDS is the first step in a natural process of clearance.”
The Narrator(s)
Richard M. Davidson. Really good, no notes.
My Thoughts
For some reason, I thought this was going to be a dry nonfiction read (maybe because of the cover!) but it turned out to be so well-written and reads like an actual horror/thriller novel. I had no idea Ebola and Marburg were so deadly. I knew they made you sick, of course, but I thought of them the way I would’ve thought about malaria, or dengue; dangerous and sometimes fatal but not incurable! And what a horrible way to go!
The issues with how the monkeys were handled, how information was shared, and how everything was cleaned up, have got me feeling torn because on the one hand, there were so many unethical practices, on the other, I have no idea what I would do if I was in that position. I’d probably be in denial too if I thought I had been exposed to an incurable virus that would eventually lead to a horrible, gory death for me.
One of the sentiments I found most interesting from the book is how viruses like Ebola and Marburg are the “predators” of humans, to cull humans when we become so overpopulated and start encroaching into animal habitats, and you know what, that’s actually really fair. We like to think we’re at the top of the food chain but we’re really not, and these tiny microscopic viruses will prove it to us any time we start thinking otherwise. I do not like the thought, but it’s what will keep me humble and wary of too much outdoor activity! I loved this book but I have decided I’m going to be a stay-at-home bookworm forever.
My Rating
5/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
I really should read this at some point; I was told it was overly sensational so I avoided it while studying, but I’d be curious what I actually think, having studied ebola and other haemorrhagic diseases in excruciating detail, ahaha. And it could be fun for me to do a proper informed review!
I definitely think Preston may have exaggerated a bit, though, because a 90% fatality rate is a bit overstated for most outbreaks — the average rate is 50%, and it’s often confounded by happening in places where good quality supportive medical care isn’t available to all and it’s often customary for people to be nursed by family members, even in hospitals. (Cholera’s case fatality rate has been similar in the past, but sinks to virtually nothing with supportive treatment — mostly fluid replacement — even though there’s no cure.) There are certainly outbreaks where the case fatality rate was 90%, but it depends on a number of circumstances, so I wouldn’t be expecting a 90% case fatality rate every time there’s an outbreak — far from it. We’ve seen ranges anywhere from 25% to 90%, depending on the strain of the virus.
I know Preston also claims that organs liquefy, which isn’t really what happens: the organs haemorrhage, so the body cavity may fill with blood and the organs may be hard to discern within that on e.g. autopsy, but the organs do actually remain intact (if not undamaged since there’s a lot of physical processes going on and some organs do get damaged in the process). Basically the human body’s intense immune reaction to ebolavirus makes the capillaries permeable, so instead of holding blood in, they leak.
Still, a lot of people infected with ebolavirus don’t even get haemorrhagic symptoms at all! So it’s a bit of a shame that “organs liquefying” has become such a pervasive understanding of how it works.
Anyway! It’s hard to judge it as a whole without reading, but it sounds like it might indeed be a bit sensationalist, or at least lacking in nuance. Still, I think that’s partly a function of the book’s age and intended audience.
…Sorry. Special interest activated, hahaha.
I love this, thank you so much for sharing what you know! I recognize that I’m very much ignorant on this topic, and I also don’t have a good memory for specific details so I usually believe most of everything I read, especially if written by people whom I’m sure know more than I do. It’s great to have your insight into this, and I’d definitely be curious as to what you think about it if you end up reading the book.
Good to hear you liked it so much. I love when a book surprises me.
Yeah, it was really readable and not boring at all like I thought it would be!