Frontier Fever

Frontier Fever

      Looking for a good independent reading book? Maybe a good book to do some research in? This is the book for you. The book Frontier Fever by Elizabeth Van Steenwyk, talks about the history of medicine in America. In particular the book talks about how medicine has evolved and changed through America and the frontier. Frontier Fever includes tons of wacky, gory, superstitious, and just plain weird examples of medical theories and treatments used in the Wild west by the native Americans and settlers. Some of the treatments and theories include spilling warm chicken guts on the patients torso to relieve stomach aches and pains and believing that getting a disease is largely based on your attitude. I think that Elizabeth Van Steenwyk wrote this book for educational and research  purposes mostly but also for people to read for fun. Personally I enjoyed this book as there are lots of specific examples of treatments. This book also delves in to the history outbreaks and epidemics in America. The author talks about how the  various epidemics were caused and how people adapted and fixed them. Relating to history, Steenwyk also provides stories of different doctors, physicians and midwives with particular theories who changed the face of medicine as we know it. While talking about individuals stories, the book includes a story about one of the first female doctors. The doctor was rushing to a patients house where she found that he had cracked his skull open. The doctor quickly took a large coin  out of her pocket, pounded it out flat with a hammer and applied it to the patients skull to fix the crack. In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this book to you if you are looking for some research or just some light reading.

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk

               

The Hot Zone: A Home To Killers

                        The Hot Zone: A Home To Killers

        Just picture this, you're at work, going throughout your daily routine, your kids are at at school, your wife is at home, and then you get a note. The note tells you that something you sniffed the other day could kill you. You drop the note, and run. When you finally reach your boss, he is sitting there, starring at you like he has been waiting, waiting for this moment, waiting for you to come in. Then he speaks, "It's real, and it's Ebola."

The cover of the book

     
        If you know anything about Ebola, you'd know the horrors it can do to the human body. It destroys us. It eats us alive from the inside out. Imagine waking up one day and regurgitating red, slimy, bloody vomit with black speckles, as if you've been chewing on coffee grounds. Your eyes are as red as rubies, and you face is starting to become a mass of bruises. Your whole face is turning black and blue. Then, you become a Zombie-like creature and you have no idea who you are and what you are doing, your personality being washed away every second. Finally you come to the last stage, your liver, kidneys, lungs, hands and feet are becoming jammed with blood clots. You, now a human virus bomb, explode. You have crashed and bled out.

        The virus that had consumed you is called Marburg. Marburg is an extremely lethal, sister virus to Ebola that kills 95% of its hosts. In the book The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston, it explains the journey of level four scientists, working at an institute in Washington, DC. These scientists spend their lives trying to ascertain more information on Ebola, or any disease associated with the Ebola virus. These scientists do the extreme.

 
        The book kicks off with a man named Charles Monet. This terrifying true story, all happened because of a major mishap. Charles Monet lived in a small village deep in an African forest and some how, spread the Marburg virus all the way from that African forest, into Washington, DC , a major city in The United States. Doctors in the area where Monet was living do not know, or think much about the Marburg virus. The Marburg virus is an extremely lethal, contagious virus, and the doctor operating on Monet catches Marburg. Now, this is huge. One of the most deadly virus's is out, in the open, waiting to attack.

The Ebola Virus 

        OK, we're going to fast forward a bit in the book. For the past few moths, the whole level four bio- hazard team has been working on trying to acquire more information on the Ebola virus. Now, they have to put their training to the task, to possibly save all of Washington, DC. The institution received a new shipment of experimental monkeys. Within days, half the monkeys had died. This was extremely alarming to everyone. Why had all of those monkeys suddenly crashed and bled out? There was one scientist who was particularly suspicious, his name is Pete Jharling. Since everything is escalating so fast Jharling knows he has to figure out some way to stop it. However, one the the tests Jharling did was a sniff test. He sniffed the flask that held the hot agent not knowing it held one of the most dangerous and contagious viruses known to modern science.

        A few days later, Jharling needed some real answers as to what the virus actually was. This test would determine everything from saving the city, to one of the biggest science breakthroughs in history. This test requires getting into a science spacesuit, and climbing into "the black hole."

A bio-hazard space suit

"The black hole" is a tiny, pitch-black room where hidden secrets, revel themselves. "The black hole" is the place where Pete Jharling's life, would change forever. The virus that was killing all of the monkeys was no joke, "It's real, and it's Ebola."

        The book The Hot Zone was one of the best books I have, and will ever read. It was very informative, exciting and interesting. I now know more than enough about The Ebola virus and its sister, The Marburg virus, than I need to know. It had just the right amount of information, excitement, and goriness to leave me sitting on the edge of my seat. I highly recommend the is book to anyone who is interested in viruses. However, they have to be ready for the gory details and hidden secrets of The Ebola virus.