Part Three of the Hot Zone

Although I would argue that section three is the least gruesome, I personally saw it as the most disturbing. A huge question was asked: How is it that a disease that's as lethal to monkeys as Ebola Reston, A) not kill humans yet, B) closely resemble Ebola Zaire in every other way?

While reading, I was reminded of something said earlier in the book along the lines of: 'a virus doesn't kill it's host if it can help it.' That's what made me realize the threat that remains from the filoviruses.

So far in The Hot Zone, we've learned that viruses adapt. Just like is the case with every other disease, be it cancer, or Aids, or the flu, viruses are just trying to live. Therefore, the host living is beneficial to said virus. The fact that Ebola Reston didn't kill it's human hosts but showed up in their blood years later, worries me on a different level than them dying would have. An outbreak that's lethal to humans in DC would have been petrifying. Yet, the idea that Ebola Reston can apparently travel through air undetected, spreading to humans until one day the virus grows to strong for it's human hosts and causes a massive, uncontrollable outbreak is a nice horrific thought too.

On a lighter note, I enjoyed reading about the containment process. Every time I figured they were done, there was another step in decontamination. I'm glad the army was so thorough. Not that it mattered, though, when the stupid company was going to buy monkeys from the exact same place. That's like realizing a dealership sold you a gutted-out car and thinking, "Hmmm, it was probably a fluke. I'll go buy another one from them."  How dense do they have to be to make the same massive mistake twice?