Summary of Richard Preston's Crisis in the Red Zone

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The hospital at the Yambuku Catholic Mission in Zaire, Africa, was filled with African oil palms and tropical vegetation. The buildings were made of brown bricks, and had open porticoes running along their sides. The maternity ward was a modest pavilion with a room that contained nineteen beds.

#2 The experience of Sister Beata, a nurse at the Yambuku hospital, demonstrates the severity of the malaria outbreak in the Congo Basin. She began to feel sick after delivering a stillborn baby five days ago. She quickly became extremely weak, and her headache and fever were caused by malaria.

#3 Sister Beata’s condition continued to deteriorate, and she began projectile vomiting. Her rocketing stopped when her stomach was completely empty, but her vomiting continued. She started bringing up masses of a black, wet, curdlike material.

#4 Father Germain, the curate of the Yambuku Catholic Mission, was sent to care for Sister Beata. She had a Fever, and her skin felt only warm to the touch. Her nosebleed had stopped, and she was conscious. However, she was crying and blood came from her eyes and ran down her cheeks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822533288

IRB Media

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Insights on Richard Preston's Crisis in the Red Zone

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The hospital at the Yambuku Catholic Mission in Zaire, Africa, was filled with African oil palms and tropical vegetation. The buildings were made of brown bricks, and had open porticoes running along their sides. The maternity ward was a modest pavilion with a room that contained nineteen beds.

#2

The experience of Sister Beata, a nurse at the Yambuku hospital, demonstrates the severity of the malaria outbreak in the Congo Basin. She began to feel sick after delivering a stillborn baby five days ago. She quickly became extremely weak, and her headache and fever were caused by malaria.

#3

Sister Beata’s condition continued to deteriorate, and she began projectile vomiting. Her rocketing stopped when her stomach was completely empty, but her vomiting continued. She started bringing up masses of a black, wet, curdlike material.

#4

Father Germain, the curate of the Yambuku Catholic Mission, was sent to care for Sister Beata. She had a Fever, and her skin felt only warm to the touch. Her nosebleed had stopped, and she was conscious. However, she was crying and blood came from her eyes and ran down her cheeks.

#5

The hospital began to lose patients, and the staff began to quit. Something demonic seemed to be happening there, as the patients began dying in beds soaked with blood and feces.

#6

Jean-Jacques Muyembé, a doctor from the Congo, was sent to investigate the disease at the Yambuku Catholic Mission. He and his colleague K. Omombo were given a ride to Bumba Zone in a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft operated by the Zairian Air Force.

#7

The doctors were taken to the abandoned Yambuku hospital, which was filled with filthy beds and blood-soaked mattresses. The building had been used for treating six thousand to twelve thousand patients a month, but now it was deserted.

#8

The hospital was not completely abandoned. There were rows of cribs and small beds in the children’s ward, and the sounds were coming from a crib. The infant boy had died after writhing in agony.

#9

A virus particle is a very small capsule made of proteins locked together in a mathematical pattern. The pattern of the interlocking proteins in a virus is far more complicated than a snowflake. The protein capsule is sometimes wrapped in an oily membrane.

#10

Viruses are biological machines that constantly evolve and adapt to their environment. They are subtle, logical, and tricky. They are constantly evolving, and their forms steadily change as time passes.

#11

A good way to diagnose typhoid fever is to collect a blood sample from the sick person and place a few drops of the blood on a petri dish. If there are any typhoid bacteria in the blood, the bacteria will grow in the petri dish, forming a splotch-like colony.

#12

The young woman’s name was Amana. She had been working as a nurse’s aide, and was possibly new to her job. In the eyes of J. J. Muyembé, she was a colleague, a medical professional, cut down in the course of her work at the hospital.

#13

Dr. Muyembé was