The Hot Zone
The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story is a best-selling 1994 non-fiction bio-thriller by Richard Preston about the origins and incidents involving viral hemorrhagic fevers, particularly ebolaviruses and marburgviruses. The basis of the book was Preston's 1992 New Yorker article "Crisis in the Hot Zone".
The filoviruses Ebola virus (EBOV), Sudan virus (SUDV), Marburg virus (MARV), and Ravn virus (RAVV) are Biosafety Level 4 agents. Biosafety Level 4 agents are extremely dangerous to humans because they are very infectious, have a high case-fatality rate, and there are no known prophylactics, treatments, or cures. Along with describing the history of the diseases caused by these two Central African diseases, Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Marburg virus disease (MVD), Preston describes an incident in which a relative of Ebola virus named Reston virus (RESTV), was discovered in Reston, Virginia, less than fifteen miles (24 km) away from Washington, DC. The virus found was a mutated form of the original Ebola virus, and was initially mistaken for Simian Hemorrhagic Fever (SHV) The original Reston, VA, facility located at 1946 Isaac Newton Square was torn down sometime between 1995 and 1998.
Famous quotes containing the words hot and/or zone:
“Coming about its own business
Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox
It enters the dark hole of the head.
The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
The page is printed.”
—Ted Hughes (b. 1930)
“The human race is a zone of living things that should be defined by tracing its confines.”
—Italo Calvino (1923–1985)