Title: Crisis in the Red Zone

Author: Richard Preston

Publisher: Random House 2019

Genre: Nonfiction - Disease

Pages: 375

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

This time, Ebola started with a two-year-old child who likely had contact with a wild creature and whose entire family quickly fell ill and died. The ensuing global drama activated health professionals in North America, Europe, and Africa in a desperate race against time to contain the viral wildfire. By the end—as the virus mutated into its deadliest form, and spread farther and faster than ever before—30,000 people would be infected, and the dead would be spread across eight countries on three continents.

In this taut and suspenseful medical drama, Richard Preston deeply chronicles the outbreak, in which we saw for the first time the specter of Ebola jumping continents, crossing the Atlantic, and infecting people in America. Rich in characters and conflict—physical, emotional, and ethical—Crisis in the Red Zone is an immersion in one of the great public health calamities of our time.

Preston writes of doctors and nurses in the field putting their own lives on the line, of government bureaucrats and NGO administrators moving, often fitfully, to try to contain the outbreak, and of pharmaceutical companies racing to develop drugs to combat the virus. He also explores the charged ethical dilemma over who should and did receive the rare doses of an experimental treatment when they became available at the peak of the disaster.

After reading The Hot Zone awhile back, I knew that I needed to read this follow-up. Right away I was drawn into both the story of the 1976 outbreak and the the 2014 outbreak. I learned so much more about ebola and how we currently fight it. I was on pins and needles on every page just waiting to find out what happened and especially what happened to those identified. Preston skillfully weaves personal stories with science knowledge. Never was I confused about the science. I was right along with the ride on every page. This book is not for the weak heart. The descriptions are suitable gruesome and horrifying. This is ebola we are depicting. This was such a good read. Now I need to go back and read some of his other books, especially The Demon in the Freezer.

Next up on the TBR pile: