Hot Zone Reading Questions:

Something in the Forest

1. Where is Mount Elgon? Describe the surrounding environment.
The book starts with Charles Monet visiting Kitum Cave during a camping trip to Mount Elgon in
Uganda. Mount Elgon is an ancient volcano on the border of Kenya and Uganda. The soil on the
mountain is red and many rivers run through the area. There are two Mount Elgon National Parks, one for
each nation the mountain shares a border with.

Diagnosis
2. What is a filovirus?
A filovirus is any virus that can be classified as any strain of Ebola or Marburg virus. They are also called
thread viruses.

Project Ebola
3. What does USAMRIID stand for?
USAMRIID stands for United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases.
4. Describe the brief history of Biological Weapons in the U.S.
Biological weapons were first designed during WW2 but have never been used by the United States. The
United States cancelled its offensive biological weapons program in 1969 and by 1972 all biological
weapons were banned by the U.N.
5. Describe the first known emergence of the Ebola virus. How did it get its name?
The first Ebola outbreaks in humans occurred in 1976, one in northern Zaire (now Democratic Republic of
the Congo) and the other in modern day South Sudan. The virus is named after the Ebola River

Ebola River
6. Describe Ebola Sudan.
Ebola Sudan is a type of Ebola virus originating in modern day South Sudan.
7. Describe Ebola Zaire.
Ebola Zaire is a type of Ebola virus originating in modern day Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Cardinal
8. Explain why a virus may be more like a predator than a parasite.
Viruses are very hard to stop and wipe out anything they can much like a predator in, for example, the
jungle does.

Chain of Command
9. What is meant by a "chain of command" in relation to biohazard work?
The "chain of command" relates to protocol and procedures. The information is first sent to the disease
assessment division, which deals with unknown divisions. After that, a decision is made as for what to do
next.

The Mission
10. What are the Three Priorities?
Priority 1: Safety of the human population.
Priority 2: Euthanasia of the animals with a minimum of suffering.
Priority 3: Gathering of scientific samples.

Reconnaissance
11. Describe the conditions of the monkey house upon the team entering the building.
The monkey house was out of control before the team entered it. After the team nuked the entire
building, management of the building was given back to Dan Dalgard.

A Bad Day
12. What significant event occurred on Wednesday, December 6th?
A monkey at the Reston monkey house escaped its cage.
13. What did the team do to the remaining monkey's that were still alive?
The remaining monkeys were euthanized by other people of the team that werent dealing with the loose
monkey.

The Most Dangerous Strain

14. Describe the Ebola Reston virus strain.
Ebola Reston is the type of Ebola virus that showed up in the monkeys at the monkey house in Reston.
The origins of the virus are believed to be somewhere in Asia. Strangely, Ebola Reston is not known to
effect humans, only primates.
15. Why is the Reston virus so much like Ebola Zaire, when Reston supposedly comes from Asia?
People from Asia who contracted Ebola Reston came to Zaire and got Ebola Zaire. The two viruses
mutated with each other and became more alike while at the same time different.

Kitum Cave
16. How did AIDS likely first appear?
It is believed that the modern AIDS that impacts humans arose from simian immunodeficiency virus, the
chimpanzee version of HIV. The virus entered humans and mutated inside us when we used to hunt
chimps for food and come in contact with infected blood.

17. Why have vaccines against HIV been unsuccessful?

Vaccines against HIV have failed because the virus is fairly new and we are still learning new things
about it every day. The virus can also mutate quickly and become immune to a vaccine that we
developed for one strain of HIV.