From reading The Hot Zone one can interpret two main themes, the first of which involves the idea that the Ebola virus could spread very rapidly if airborne. In today's society, with the worldwide use of airplanes, an airborne virus could travel from country to another in a matter of hours. Many of the outbreaks occurred as a result of infected people traveling to other areas and infecting people there. With the use of airplanes a virus such as an airborne strand of Ebola could destroy the world. Another major theme in this book is Preston's idea that disease is nature's defense. Preston says,

For the most part The Hot Zone is a very interesting book. It has many sections that keep the reader on the edge of his seat. The book was very descriptive in many parts, which required many hours of research and detail work. The Hot Zone opens with a vivid telling of Charles Monet's infection and how it eats away at his body. After the first wave of deaths, we get an explanation of the necessary scientific terms of understanding viruses and how virus research is conducted. The book changes radically in tone and pacing. We get a new viewpoint from Lieutenant Colonel Jaax. The tone of the book becomes much more matter-of-fact, and much drier. The pace also dramatically slows. The organization could have been better. The author seemed to skip around a lot. He also expanded a lot on the personal lives of the characters while leaving other more important sections lacking detail, such as the fact that some of the doctors thought that they might have the virus, but they didn't tell anyone.

The last chapter of the book was also out of place. He spent t

Some common words found in the essay are:
Hot Zone, Japan United, Colonel Jaax, Richard Preston, DC Virus, Charles Monet's, hot zone, human race, pages book, human parasite, human species,
Approximate Word count = 711
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)