The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus

Preston mentions that Robin MacDonald’s wife Carrie, the MacDonalds’ two sons, two American friends, three other professional safari staff, and one armed guard are also along. Clearly worried about the possibility of contracting Marburg in the cave, Preston has brought along a three-page document with treatment and quarantine instructions that he plans to give to his friends if he develops a headache (322-23). Reaching the town of Kitale, at the base of Mount Elgon, at sundown, the group is immediately accosted by sex traffickers. They also see the burned-out huts of Bukusu farmers—evidence of recent violence.

The next day, the group hikes to Kitum Cave. In every animal they see along the trail and even in the stinging nettles along the path, Preston sees “a possible host of the Marburg virus” (327). Mount Elgon’s elephant herd, once numbering 2000, has been reduced by poaching to a single family of 70, but tracks and animal dung speak to many other animals using the cave for shelter or salt, including cape buffalo, waterbuck, bushbuck, red duikers, genet cats, and numerous small mammals. Preston takes out his Tyvek suit. It is not pressurized like a space suit, but it has a faceplate and respirator. His friend helps him put it on, and he asks the group to give him an hour inside.

Entering the cave, Preston crosses 100 yards of fallen rock, the result of a roof collapse in 1982. Next, he comes to a fruit bat roost, where the rocks are slick with guano. Next, he comes to a dry, dusty area, where he reflects that viruses are often well preserved in dark, dry conditions. Crawling into another chamber of the cave, he hits his head. Without his protective gear, he would have cut himself. Petrified trees, fossils, and salt crystals line the walls and ceiling of this area, and insect-eating bats roost there. At the very back of the cave, there are spiders. Exiting the cave, Preston decontaminates himself with bleach in a laundry tub, strips off the protective suit, and bags both it and his clothing. He worries a little about the lump on his head, as it may contain micro-tears in his scalp through which viral particles may have entered his bloodstream.

The chapter then discusses the broader context of emerging diseases and rainforest diseases in particular, linking them to human encroachment upon and damage to the biologically diverse ecosystems of tropical rainforests. He speculates that viruses may be Earth’s immune response to human population growth.

In the book’s closing scene, he describes a fall visit to the abandoned monkey house in Reston. Climbing vines have grown inside the building, and a spider web full of egg cases hangs from a wall. He concludes with an ominous promise: “Life had established itself in the monkey house. Ebola had risen in these rooms, flashed its colors, fed, and subsided into the forest. It will be back” (343).