Part One of the Hot Zone

Now, I'm not one to scare easily, but I find this book slightly terrifying. Well, not the book, more so the viruses. I'm loving this book because, although it comes across as an excruciatingly detailed account of real-life biology, it's more than just the strict science that students are used to learning about in school. I like that Richard Preston lets you get to know the people before they turn into ticking time bombs of explosive bleeding and fatal infection. It makes it personable and reiterates the fact that this is real, not science-fiction. That's the terrifying part. These were real people with families and pets and jobs that made one wrong move.  This book is very dynamic in that the details are gruesome enough to cause a slight case of Hypochondria yet, the CSI-style tracing of facts makes it hold a story-line and become interesting. It's like the  Epidemiologists are tracking a killer, which they technically are. The biggest questions on my mind, thus far, are related to Kitum Cave.When I first read what happened to Charles Monet after his trip to the cave,I thought about how large of an incentive it would require to get me to go in to the cave. After finishing Part One, I realized I would go in Kitum Cave [with a bio-hazard suit, obviously, (but I'd check my suit unlike Nancy Jaax)] just to see the petrified rain forest. But  Did Gene Johnson and his team ever find the same petrified rain forest that Charles Monet did? If they did, did they not test it? Or did they test it and not find traces of Marburg?

Also, I wish I had been counting how many monkeys have been sacrificed so far in the name of science. Jane Goodall would have a field-day.