The Hot Zone summary

Ebola was first discovered in humans in 1976, near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since then, various outbreaks have shown just how deadly the virus can be.

The virus essentially attacks the body’s cells, working to dissolve tissue and even entire organs.

The Ebola virus is not only extremely deadly but also spreads quickly and efficiently.

Part of the virus’s effectiveness involves its incubation time, during which an infected person can spread the virus to others before noticing any disease symptoms.

So far we’ve seen how Ebola affects the body. Yet the psychological damage of dealing with Ebola – even if you’ve never contracted the virus – cannot be discounted.

It’s hard to find good scientists willing to work with those stricken with Ebola, as many are simply afraid of the consequences if they too contract the disease.

Although there have been a few Ebola outbreaks in different parts of the world, it appears that some strains that have jumped from animals to humans may have developed in a single place.

The question that scientists now grapple with is: Which place?

To thrive, viruses such as Ebola need to continually find new hosts. Our modern society unfortunately makes it all too easy for a virus to spread from place to place and person to person.

The close quarters of traveling by airplane is an ideal environment for the transmission of viruses. If your neighbor is sick and vomits, for example, your chances of infection are fairly high.

With a virus as deadly as Ebola, you’d think that people would take the utmost caution when dealing with it. Yet simple negligence and incompetence have been also directly responsible for its spread.

Researchers Tom Geisberg and Peter Jahrling may have just been curious when they decided to sniff inside a test tube that contained an unknown virus. To their horror, they later learned that the unknown virus was Ebola!

Let’s start off with some good news. Despite Ebola’s virulent nature, we still have a good chance of fighting the virus and containing outbreaks.

New research has led to new discoveries that can help us better protect ourselves against the virus. Indeed, in recent years we’ve seen a steady improvement in the quality of equipment and medical suits used in quarantine situations.

Now, the bad news. There will always be a threat of an Ebola pandemic, as there is still too much we don’t know about this virus itself.

We know that the virus is incredibly resilient, able to mutate and adapt to its surroundings, making it far more dangerous than many other viruses.