We went through a double airlock to get into it. My impression was that it is a very, very serious place. She describes it as 'a prison and you're gonna die.' What exactly is the Slammer like? The Army consigned her to 21 days in the Slammer. In 2004, virologist Kelly Warfield accidentally stuck herself with a needle containing Ebola-tainted blood. It has this extraordinary facility at Fort Detrick, Md. In your book, you talk about how the U.S. But that's no reason to view it as scary or excessively dangerous. I know they're beautiful places that contain a lot of different kinds of creatures, including some that carry Ebola. I've spent a lot of time in the forests of central Africa. Most Americans know nothing about the African forest, and it seems to them a very scary, spooky dangerous place. But also, I think that it's because the virus comes from the African forest, disappears for a few years at a time and then goes back in its reservoir host until its next spillover. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.ĭo you think that the book The Hot Zone is one reason why many Americans have such strong fears about Ebola? We caught up with Quammen to discuss his new book, Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus, and to learn a bit more about other tales, truths and myths of Ebola. They caused people to view this disease as though it was some sort of preternatural phenomenon.' 'But Preston's book has all these vivid, gruesome details, and they have given people an exaggerated idea of Ebola over the years. For that reason, 'the disease is no longer even classified as a hemorrhagic fever.' Sometimes people with Ebola hemorrhage, but in the majority of cases, there's no dramatic bleeding, Quammen says. The experts said, 'Ebola is not like how it's portrayed in the book.

But as he did his own research and talked to experts, including virologist Karl Johnson, a major character in The Hot Zone ,he heard a different story. It's one of the things that got me interested in Ebola,' Quammen says. 'I thought The Hot Zone was fascinating, mesmerizing. In his new book about Ebola, science writer David Quammen has some harsh words for the author of another book about the virus - Richard Preston's best-seller The Hot Zone. Goats and Soda The Ebola Outbreak: 'A Dress Rehearsal For The Next Big One'

The hot zone book