Virus Ground Zero: Stalking the Killer Viruses with the Centers for Disease Control

This is a great book if you are interested in information about the CDC, how it was founded, and how it works. In that area it is very specific. However, if you are looking for a disease thriller like The Hot Zone, I wouldn't recommend this book to you.

This book traces the response of the CDC to an Ebola outbreak in Zaire in 1995. Like its predecessor, The Hot Zone, many stories are interwoven throughout the book to give a complete background into what happened. Despite this stylistic similarity, the message of this book is quite different from that of The Hot Zone, as becomes more and more clear by the end of the book. One of the main story lines is a description of the development of the CDC, from its start as an anti-malaria organization to the multi-faceted behemoth that it is today. After reading the descriptions of the Level 4 labs in The Hot Zone, I never would have guessed at the primitive lab conditions found at the CDC through the 1960s and later. Regis' core message is that of victory- -victory over this particular outbreak, victory over small pox, and the tremendous success we have had combating infectious illnesses during the twentieth century. He points out that so many infections can be prevented by simple hygiene, like washing one's hands, or by avoiding direct physical contact with infected people by using rubber gloves. Even the much feared Ebola virus doesn't spread easily when people follow standard hygiene protocols common in the developed world. Regis doesn't dismiss the importance of paying attention to communicable diseases and preventing epidemics, but he argues that there is no need to live in fear about new rain forest microbes out to get us.

Mr. Regis writes a fascinating biography of a chilling topic-incurable, deadly killing hemmorrahgic fevers that strike without warning. This book is a Must-read!

An enjoyable book providing entry level information into the topics of viral outbreaks and the CDC. There is a well developed section on the background of the United States' Centers for Disease Control, and a refreshing perspective on the reality of the battle against the "killer microbes." Not an intense review of virology, but a fun easy to understand overview of the Ebola epidemic and other associated viral outbreaks.

A well written book about the Center for Diseases Control( as it is now called) in Atlanta. Carefully documented history about the agency from its earliest beginnings including accounts of how it has handled many famous cases such as the Ebola outbreak in Reston. Sometimes boring with the internal goings on at CDC but the case histories a nd the search to find the Ebola virus in Africa are certainly worth reading.