The Hot Zone Paper

Within Richard Preston’s, The Hot Zone, the very real threats posed by the deadly viruses of Marburg and Ebola Reston is brought to attention through the “terrifying true story”. In the first chapter, Charles Monet is introduced as a man with a little too much free time and works at the pump house at the sugar factory within near the base of Mt. Elgon. One day in 1980, he takes a female friend to Kitum Cave, and it is believed that this is the day he caught the Marburg virus. The first symptoms include a severe headache; but, three days later, he starts vomiting. It is mentioned his eyes become red, and his face starts to droop. His skin changes color to yellow, and there are red specks all over his body. Once he is taken to the hospital, he eventually passes out by throwing up black vomit, that is described to have his bowels and parts of his intestines. The black vomit was the proof of extreme amplification within Monet, and once Dr. Musoke had a hold of him, he saw that blood came out of every opening of his body. Dr. Musoke tries to transfuse Monet’s blood, but every place in his arm where the needle was stuck, the vein broke apart like cooked macaroni and spilled blood. Monet officially dies, and when he is opened for an autopsy, they find that his kidneys and livers are destroyed - yellowed and parts of it liquified. Later however, when the USAMRIID inspects Kitum Cave, they find no evidence of the Marburg virus. Today, there is still relatively little we know about Marburg.

Preston describes how the primary mode of transmission for Marburg appears to be via close personal contact with an infected individual or their bodily fluids. The virus does have potential to transmit through small-particle aerosols, but not airborne. Klaus F. breaks out with Marburg after washing and feeding monkeys, and as does a boy named Peter Cardinal, who was thought to have died because he was under the care of Dr. David Silverstein, who was treating Dr. Musoke (who treated