Preston, Richard. The Hot Zone. New York: Random House Inc. 1994
Richard Preston portrays the frightening forces and haunting discoveries that are
changing and reordering our world, once again proving himself a master of nonfiction narrative.
Richard Preston, born August 5, 1954 in Cambridge, Massachusetts is a New Yorker writer and
bestselling author best-known for his alarming books about infectious disease epidemics and
bioterrorism. Whether journalistic or fictional, his writings are based on thorough background
research and extensive interviews. He is also the brother of best-selling author, Douglas Preston.
The book is based on events that happened between 1967 and 1993. In this time period a
highly infectious virus from an African rain forest shows up in Washington, D.C. There seems to
be no cure for the virus. In only a few days 90% of the virus’s victims are dead.
Shortly after New Years Eve in 1980, a man named Charles Monet took a girlfriend of
his to Mount Elgon in West Kenya, Africa. Monet and his girlfriend end up spending the night
and they visited a cave called Kitcum cave. After he got home from his trip, he got home and
three days later, got a massive headache. The headache is the first symptom of his deadly
disease. A few days after getting the headache he went to the doctor who told Monet that he
needed to go to the hospital in Nairobi. Charles Monet got a flight to Nairobi nine days after
visiting the cave. The entire way to the Nairobi hospital, he was throwing up blood mixed with
other liquids of various color. After landing in Nairobi, Monet went to the hospital and waited
for the doctor to see him. While he was waiting, his spine went numb and he lost balance. After
this happened, Charles Monet ends up going into shock. Just as on the plane, he starts throwing
up blood while he is unconscious. While he was throwing up all of this blood and black liquid,
his...