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Crisis in the Red Zone

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Very well-researched and well-written. I was totally riveted by this book. Preston is very knowledgeable on the subject and is very adept at turning the facts into prose.

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Very good follow-up from the Hot Zone. I thought this was a good book. Very interesting and thought-provoking.

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I received an advanced review copy for free from NetGalley.

Like everyone when the 2013-2014 Ebola outbreak I was scared because I didn't know a lot about it. The only things I knew where what the news was telling me, and I'm a believer that a lot of the time (in situations like this one) the media is just out to cause panic. And panic I did because I didn't understand. One day I was surfing the internet and I came across a free class centred around Ebola. I thought what better way to help my fear than to better understand it.

First off, I'm glad I took the course and have taken several public health classes since, I'm obsessed with the field, and even work as a research assistant. But that first class I ever took suggested I read "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston (another book I will be reviewing here). From the first page, I hooked on the story he telling and knew I had to get my hands on the rest of his books. So when I got the chance to read this, I took it.

Like all of his book's this is entertaining and informative right from the start. This book covers the 2013-2014 the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record. It covers the first report to the spread of 30,000 people. We learn about the doctors and nurses who put their own lives on the line to government officials and pharmaceutical companies all dedicated to stopping the spread.

Whether you're new to the world of Ebola and public health or an expert who just wants to read more, this book is great at digging deeper and having a better understanding and respect of those working on the front lines and even those working in offices trying to stop the spread. The only thing you've got to watch out for is the book can get a little graphic. All of his books can. Its not for shock value, rather for his readers to get a better understanding of how these illness can take over the body and effects they have on it.

All in all, this is yet another one of his books that I read from time to time, and is a must for anyone interested in learning more about the outbreak.

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All in all, I enjoyed reading this book and learned a lot from it. I respect how well researched it was, and really appreciated the dedication to the characters and telling their stories. The author is an excellent story teller.

However, I wasn't a big fan of certain aspects. First of all - the draft I read was very poorly edited. Lots of inconsistencies and grammatical/spelling errors - I like to presume this was fixed before final publish. Additionally, the author must assume the reader has a very poor memory, with how often certain pieces of information were repeated. I understand the intention - it's difficult to retain so much about new information, but I feel the repetition was overdone. Additionally, I think it was a stretch to describe this book as also being about outbreaks to come - I felt that only the last few pages were focused on this topic.

Still a great read, though - thank you for the opportunity!

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Preston always gives the best kind of chills. Probably not the best reading choice during a pandemic, but I couldn't help myself. It was a fascinating read that gave me Hot Zone flashbacks. More! More!!

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This well-written and scary book about the 2013-2014 Ebola outbreak that jumped continents and infected 30,000 people worldwide may or may not be your idea of go-to reading during our current pandemic. Preston has a lot of prescient warnings about the nature of new viruses, considering this was published just months before Covid-19. A carefully researched page-turner.

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Crisis in the Red Zone by Richard Preston is a thrilling non-fiction book about the most recent Ebola outbreak. While I knew some of the story from the news reports, Mr. Preston takes readers much deeper into the events. Most shocking was the information about Doctors Without Borders and their ineffective politically correct policies. It makes me wonder how many people die needlessly due to their "fairness" policies. How is not treating anyone since they cannot treat everyone in the midst of an emergency a smart practice? I was amazed by the strength of the African doctors and nurses who did so much with so little in the face of overwhelming sickness. This book was eye opening and a wonderful read.

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Random House and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

As the author moves between the 1976 outbreak of Ebola and the outbreak of 2013-2014, readers are given a clear picture as to the scope of the devastation. The book is a little wordy at times and often gets bogged down in details about the individuals involved, but it is undeniable how Richard Preston's words can affect the reader. It just takes one small particle of the Ebola virus to infect and to kill in rapid succession. The fact that Ebola was able to make it across the world without detection is enough to give anyone pause. What struck me in particular was that those individuals sent in to stop the virus in its tracks did not do much to prevent its spread. Instead of working with the locals to educate and to provide assistance to the citizens, the officials basically just stop the virus and move on to the next crisis.

I liked Crisis in the Red Zone as a whole, but I do wish that the author had spent more time on the more recent outbreak. Some of this book rehashes his previous works, so readers who are new to the author might get more from Crisis in the Red Zone than others.

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“[The Ebola outbreak] was really just a series of small accidents and unnoticed events, which, moment by moment, grew into a crescendo of horror. This was the shockwave produced by an emerging virus as it came out of the ecosystem. The virus magnified itself in people, swept away lives, met opposition from the human species, and finally died out. What will the next shockwave be like?”

This is an informative book that didn’t quite mesh with my own personal interests. It traces the spread of Ebola through several outbreaks beginning in Zaire in 1976. I found the book somewhat repetitive and there was way more discussion of symptoms of Ebola than I wanted to read. I would have preferred more analysis of the socioeconomic underpinnings of disease spread. I’m also interested in epidemiology, and I don’t recall a single mention of whether anyone is looking into the people who don’t catch this highly contagious and lethal disease, or those who recover. That just wasn’t the focus of this book.

I did find the book interesting. My favorite part was near the end when an Ebola doctor was denied treatment with an untested drug, for reasons that seemed like total garbage to me. It would make a good case study in an ethics course. At least they’ve saved a dose of the treatment for our President. 3.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

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I've always enjoyed every other piece of written work from the author. I was even looking forward the the "fact based" concept I just couldn't lose myself in it. Most likely just me, I'd recommend trying it for yourself.

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This book read like a scary thriller, but it’s unfortunately all too real. Richard Preston does a great job of humanizing all the people involved in the outbreak, telling everyone’s history, so the reader really roots for them and is saddened if they don’t make it. While this book often details complex medical and scientific information, it does so in a way that the average layperson can easily understand. This is an excellent nonfiction book.

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The Ebola outbreak of 2013-2014 in Africa should serve as a wake up call for all global citizens, and the threat of further outbreaks in the future. Richard Preston offers us a compelling fact-driven book that details the bravery of doctors and medical personnel in confronting this deadly threat to us all.

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This was a great follow-up to the Hot Zone. Looking at the way in which we still stumble to confront epidemics is scary but reading about the brave medical staff working to fight these diseases head on is comforting. A Great read!

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I clearly remember the day in 1994 that I picked up <i>the Hot Zone</i> by Richard Preston. I was browsing a long since bankrupt bookstore in a long since abandoned strip mall waiting for a pizza to finish cooking at a, you guessed it, long since out of business pizza parlor. I was really into horror and Michael Crichton at the time, so a book about a hemorrhagic virus and the scientists trying to tack its source seemed like a great way to scratch both itches at the same time. Twenty-five years later, I've long forgotten the pizza, but the book is still fresh in my memory. It's a wonderful book, paced like an action film, filled with interesting facts about viruses, and a chilling reminder that we live in a world where the entire human race could be wiped out by something that we can't even see.

<i>Crisis in the Red Zone</i> tells the story of the 1976 and 2014 outbreaks of Zaire Ebola. Mr. Preston chooses these two particular outbreaks because while they are the same strain of virus, the 2014 virus mutated in a way that made it much more virulent than 1976 strain. This is the crux of the problem for scientists and the danger to humanity. These Biohazard Level 4 viruses come in contact with humans, mutate as they use human cells to replicate, and sometimes those mutations make it easier to infect even more people. While the 1976 Zaire Ebola only killed 218 people, the 2014 Zaire, even with improvements in medicine and Ebola fighting techniques, infected 28,000 and killed over 11,000 people. In other words, as the virus mutates it becomes harder to contain. Virologists fear that at some point, Ebola and viruses like it, will eventually break containment and travel around the world; mutating, becoming more dangerous, and potentially impossible to contain.

<Crisis in the Red Zone</i> is a fascinating read, but there are some problems here. The first is that the book is poorly edited and the author often repeats the same sentences or phrases; sometimes in the same paragraph. The end result is a book that feels like individual sentences and paragraphs were duct taped together without any unifying theme to make it all hang together. This is something that should have been fixed by a strong editor, but it wasn't.

The second big issue for me was that the book spends a lot of time talking about the collection of blood and the scientists who work to sequence the genetic code of the virus. I suppose what they do is interesting from a scientific point of view - observing the genetic mutations of the virus and tracking the virus back to its original host - but the author never explains how scientists expect this research to lead to a viable way of combating Ebola.

The book presents two groups of people fighting the virus - the scientists in Boston who sit around tables in multi-million dollar research labs and discuss the horrors of the virus while sequencing its genetic structure even though they know it isn't going to lead to a cure and the doctors fighting the virus in Africa who are underfunded, understaffed, and lack basic supplies such as bleach and bio-hazard suits. Maybe I'm seeing racism where it doesn't exist, but it really bothered me that a black doctor was refused a dose of ZMapp (the miracle Ebola cure being talked up in the media right now) while white doctors had no trouble getting access to the drug.

If we are to survive as a species, we must stop seeing Ebola as an African problem and viruses like SARS as an East Asian problem. We live in a world connected by flight and a virus can become a pandemic within a matter of hours. If we want to survive we need to make sure there is adequate funding, equipment, and training on the front lines when these viruses emerge. Billion dollar facilities for sequencing genomes are great, but stopping viruses before they have a chance to spread is the surest way to avoid a pandemic.

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Well, this was scary! Timely but scary... Not the kind of book you think would keep you up at night but it did.

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Crisis in the Red Zone is a layman accessible and terrifying real-life narrative about the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Africa and internationally, its development, and eventual (partial) containment. Part detective thriller, part popular science and epidemiology, it captured me from the first page. The author has managed to humanize the headlines we all read at the time and make them more personal and more real.

Released 23rd July 2019 by Random House, it's 400 pages and available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.

He writes well and authoritatively on the science behind the scenes, and about the healthcare professionals and support staff who sacrificed themselves to contain the epidemic. The heroic, almost superhuman efforts of the doctors and nurses made my heart ache for the horrifying loss of life to the merciless enemy that is Ebola.

The book follows a rough timeline with interconnections in the form of the individuals (where known) who were infected by people they came into contact with and infected others in turn. The background research is impressive and seems quite meticulous. There is a glossary, and map info in the final release version of the book.

It's unclear from the publishing info available online, but the eARC I received also has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references. I hope the ebook release version does also. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This book would make a superlative book club selection for non-fiction readers, as well as fans of layman science. It's a terrifying read, even more so because it's non-fiction. It is extremely graphic in places and readers will want to be clear on the fact that the progression of the disease is horrific, resulting in death in approximately 50% of the cases.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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Not my normal read, but I read The Hot Zone, and wanted to see what was new. The book follows how an Ebola outbreak happened and how it might spread. Things that could have been avoided and made a difference, and how mother nature will have her way. It is a intense book, and the author says it like it is. (blood granulated like coffee grounds, will stick in my mine for quite a while). Then you get to the end and realize the world as a whole is not equip to handle any major outbreaks of any virus's . I am very glad I read this book, it took longer to read then most books for me, but I wanted and needed time to digest the information. Not a fun book but very interesting, a must read.

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Crisis in the Red Zone really hit me in a weird, profound way. During the Ebola crisis, around 2015, I just happened to be working on a job that support groups who were diligently supporting the crisis in their capacity. There is a very deja vu sense reading about something and remembering sitting in meetings talking about similar problems and issues.
I have previously read Preston’s other book Ebola, Hot Zone, and completely devoured it. Crisis in the Red Zone was no different. It was filled with facts and insights I was unaware of at the time, and drew back on past crises to further explain the full scope of what was really going on. Ebola is a deadly, bloody, and scary disease. Without proper care, containment practices, and knowledge (both at a patient and doctor level), it can spread, wreaking havoc on families, communities, villages, and cities. Reading about encounters with those who had caught Ebola, the doctors and nurses tirelessly tending patients, and decisions that were basically “lesser of two evils” being made, Crisis in the Red Zone reads like a horror book. Except that it is all true. Preston is able to capture that horror and the dedication of those who worked on the front lines simultaneously.
My only complaint is about some of the writing style. A few of the passages were repetitive, both from early in the book and some of his other writings. While I understand presenting information from another work like it is new for new readers, it personally made those passages a bit slow and boring. However, it was easy enough to skim through what I remembered and move on to new facts and stories.
Medical non-fiction is my bookish wheelhouse, and I am glad Crisis in the Red Zone did not disappoint. Now, to just wait for news of any more future work from Preston!
Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

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This book is a fascinating look at the Ebola outbreak in 1976 and the reoccurrence in 2013. It's scary to think that it's happening again in the Congo. It's also scary to think that if this were to become a global pandemic we are not even close to ready to combat something like that.

The book is divided into four parts. The first part starts in 1976 with the first documented case of Ebola in a young woman who is brought to the hospital in what use to be Zaire and is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She is in labor and had a high fever, the whites of her eyes were bright red and she was bleeding from the gums. This actually wasn't unusual. it looked like a case of cerebral malaria. the midwives and nursing aids were not wearing gloves or eye coverings. The baby was stillborn and the mother died shortly after. Five days later the attending nurse fell ill and died 10 days later. The people caring for her didn't have any idea that what she had was contagious. Medical workers, priests, families stared dying horribly.

The second and third parts go back and forth between 1976 and 2013 when the reoccurrence happened. The first part felt like it was written in a very simple way, where as the rest of the book was written very intelligently. I like the 2nd, 3rd and 4th parts much better. I would highly recommend this book. it's written almost like a good thriller and not like non-fiction. I am actually giving this a 4.5.

Thank you to Netgalley for the book in exchange for an honest review.

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I received an uncorrected proof of this book thanks to NetGalley.

Crisis in the Red Zone focuses on the deadliest Ebola epidemic (2013-2014) as well as the Ebola outbreak in 1976. The reader is given some history of the Ebola Virus and the ongoing fight to find a cure or vaccine. But, this is so much more than just a book about a virus. Richard Preston really focuses on human nature and the compassion of the people who were fighting this virus and the many who died. This is about the physical, emotional and ethical conflicts that were taking place across continents.

Due to there being two timelines of Ebola outbreaks, I naturally found myself more interested in one than the other. I worked for a medical company during this epidemic in 2014, so that was the one I found myself far more invested in. I'm more familiar with it and it's one of the biggest reasons I picked this book up. So the numerous sections about the 1976 outbreak I found myself losing interest slightly. They needed to be there and they were written about very well, but it's a lot of information and characters to keep track of and I definitely didn't pay as close attention to those parts.

I wish there had been more about the mass panic the media was able to stir up surrounding this crisis. Overall, though, I thought Preston did a great job portraying the difficult decisions that needed to be made in the midst of this devastating and chaotic epidemic where people have very little information. Those human moments are what make this book so well done!

Emerging diseases are only going to become more prevalent. With the current Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo and WHO announcing this as an international concern, I can’t think of a book more important right now.

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