hot zones
In October of l989, Macaque monkeys, housed at the Reston Primate Quarantine Unit in Reston, Virginia, began dying from a mysterious disease at an alarming rate. The monkeys, imported from the Philippines, were to be sold as laboratory animals. Twenty-nine of a shipment of one hundred died within a month. Dan Dalgard, the veterinarian who cared for the monkeys, feared they were dying from Simian Hemorrhagic Fever, a disease lethal to monkeys but harmless to humans. Dr. Dalgard decided to enlist the aid of the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) to help diagnose the case. On November 28th, Dr. Peter Jahlring of the Institute was in his lab testing a virus culture from the monkeys. Much to his horror, the blood tested positive for the deadly Ebola Zaire virus. Ebola Zaire is the most lethal of all strains of Ebola. It is so lethal that nine out of ten of its victims die. Later, the geniuses at USAMRIID found out that it wasn't Zaire!
------------------------------------------------------------------------ ! but a new strain of Ebola, which they named Ebola Reston. This was added to the list of strains: Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, and now, Reston. These are all level-four hot viruses. That means there are no vaccines and there Marburg (a close relative of Ebola) is one hundred times more contagious, one hundred times as lethal, and one hundred times as fast as HIV. "Ebola does in ten days what it takes HIV ten years to accomplish," wrote Richard Preston. The virus, though, has a hard Indiana Jones' of the virus trail. Some like Dr. Joe McCormick, Karl Johnson, and CJ Peters spent years tracking down deadly viruses in the jungles of South America and Africa, some narrowly escaping death. Their work is filled with courage, brilliance and sometimes petty rivalries. Others, like Dr. Nancy Jaax have lived rather conventional lives, aside from the fact that they don a space suit and work with highly lethal
Some common words found in the essay are:
Washington DC, Nancy Jaax, Ebola Zaire, Reston Virginia, Hospital Africa, Sudan Reston, Michael Crichton, Zaire Sudan, Ebola Marburg, Richard Preston, hundred times, ebola zaire, victims usually, strain ebola, strains ebola,
Approximate Word count = 664
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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