Crisis in the Red Zone

The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come

De: Richard Preston

Narrado por: Ray Porter

New York Times Best Seller

An urgent wake-up call about the future of emerging viruses and a gripping account of the doctors and scientists fighting to protect us, told through the story of the deadly 2013-2014 Ebola epidemic

“Crisis in the Red Zone reads like a thriller. That the story it tells is all true makes it all more terrifying.” (Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction)

From the number-one best-selling author of The Hot Zone, now a National Geographic original miniseries....

This time, Ebola started with a two-year-old child who likely had contact with a wild creature and whose entire family quickly fell ill and died. The ensuing global drama activated health professionals in North America, Europe, and Africa in a desperate race against time to contain the viral wildfire. By the end - as the virus mutated into its deadliest form, and spread farther and faster than ever before - 30,000 people would be infected, and the dead would be spread across eight countries on three continents.

In this taut and suspenseful medical drama, Richard Preston deeply chronicles the pandemic, in which we saw for the first time the specter of Ebola jumping continents, crossing the Atlantic, and infecting people in America. Rich in characters and conflict - physical, emotional, and ethical - Crisis in the Red Zone is an immersion in one of the great public health calamities of our time.

Preston writes of doctors and nurses in the field putting their own lives on the line, of government bureaucrats and NGO administrators moving, often fitfully, to try to contain the outbreak, and of pharmaceutical companies racing to develop drugs to combat the virus. He also explores the charged ethical dilemma over who should and did receive the rare doses of an experimental treatment when they became available at the peak of the disaster.

Crisis in the Red Zone makes clear that the outbreak of 2013-2014 is a harbinger of further, more severe outbreaks, and of emerging viruses heretofore unimagined - in any country, on any continent. In our ever more interconnected world, with roads and towns cut deep into the jungles of equatorial Africa, viruses both familiar and undiscovered are being unleashed into more densely populated areas than ever before.

The more we discover about the virosphere, the more we realize its deadly potential. Crisis in the Red Zone is an exquisitely timely book, a stark warning of viral outbreaks to come.

©2019 Richard Preston (P)2019 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Richard Preston’s red zone - beset by ethical, medical, and epidemiological quandaries—shows us at our worst and at our best. This is a story about people, not pathogens, but, even as Preston focuses on one group of clinicians, nurses, and scientists at an underresourced hospital in West Africa, he makes devastatingly clear the worldwide fragility of our public-health systems. Global inequities have epidemiological consequences. This chronicle is haunting, yet not without hope. In spare, gripping prose, he illuminates how our interlinked age can make for enormous vulnerability - but also resilience.” (Kwame Anthony Appiah, professor of philosophy and law, New York University)

“Crisis in the Red Zone reads like a thriller. That the story it tells is all true makes it all more terrifying, and there’s no one who could tell it better than Richard Preston.” (Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History)

Outstanding

Absolutely riveting!!! Preston traces the history of Ebola & examines its origins through the telling of personal stories, most specifically the latest outbreak that occurred in 2013-14. It’s such a powerful first hand account especially given the past 2.5 years we’ve just lived through. Once again I’m awed by the medical workers, specifically nurses & doctors who risk their lives in order to save, treat & care for others. Outstanding audio. Excellent narrative. Would make for excellent bookclub discussion!

Excellent Deep Dive

Having heard of Ebola in movies like Outbreak, and of course living through COVID 19, this is a fascinating nonfiction tale of what a truly deadly disease epidemic is like. There are a few brief moments of “storytelling,” when accounts of individuals’ lives outside of the outbreak are shared, but otherwise this is definitively nonfiction. Yet, it is in no way a dry read/listen. Preston’s accounting of the Ebola tragedies is accurate and compelling.
Ray Porter is one of the best narrators in any genre, and I am thankful that his work on this book drew me to purchase it

riveting

I get so much insight into various entities, both medical and political. I am enthralled with the story.

Great information! Well told!

Fascinating to learn about Ebola. Narration was well done and there's much to be learned about how we handled the Ebola virus outbreak! Excellent!!

Compelling

I love the detail he writes about everyone involved. The dead are brought back to life and those who lived to tell the tale feel like I know them personally. Getting to know these people is both very wonderful and heartbreaking, especially since some of them died heroically trying to stop the virus.

reading this in 2021

having read this in mid 2021 i cant describe how freaking erie a feeling i got.

Fascinating, compelling follow-up to The Hot Zone

Richard Preston can write a true thriller like no one else I've read. He gets into the grit of recent events as they unfold and puts us RIGHT THERE. This is why I've read practically everything he's ever written, and have yet to be disappointed.

We all know the Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus is terrifying, and we have heard about recent outbreaks. But we didn't know what was actually happening, and we have been sheltered by the media from the news that there are still outbreaks in Africa that could threaten the globe. Do we know to be prepared to hole up, if an outbreak hit our cities and towns? Do we understand the concept of reverse quarantine and how it has helped prevent the spread across African countries? There is so much to learn, and Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come offers current and vital information to add on top of The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus, The Demon in the Freezer, and the others.

I was fascinated to find out that, like climate change deniers, there are Ebola deniers. One of the biggest reasons Ebola was spreading so quickly five years ago is that there were many who didn't believe this is a real disease, spread by a wet virus. They thought it was some kind of conspiracy created by the white men coming in and putting up hospitals, or it was a demon or gods getting them. These Ebola deniers wouldn't take those infected to the hospitals, and were even stealing infected people from hospitals and taking them home.

Equally fascinating was the ritual of rinsing (Ebola-covered) family members' bodies after death, then giving honored family members the gift of rinsing with that same water, so they may bathe in the loved one's essence. Yes, literally taking all the active Ebola particles that clung to the deceased's body, rinsing them into a basin and pouring them onto oneself. I am still dumbstruck that these kinds of burial practices haven't destroyed civilizations, given all the plagues and viruses that have attacked humanity over millenia. Or maybe it has?

The changes that took place to slow this current spread of Ebola were intriguing. It sounds so simple -- isolate, wash with bleach, be careful -- but considering the "it's fake news" beliefs of the affected populations, it seems unlikely modern medicine could make an impact, though it's a relief to hear something finally changed.

"The Ebola war wasn't won with modern medicine. It was a medieval war, and it went down as a brutal engagement between ordinary people and a life form that was trying to use the human body as a means of survival through deep time. In order to win this war against an inhuman enemy, people had to make themselves inhuman. They had to suppress their deepest feelings and instincts, tear down the bonds of love and feeling, isolate themselves from or isolate those they loved the most. Human beings had to become like monsters, in order to save their human selves."

My heart goes out to each and every healthcare worker who, against horrifying odds, stepped up and put their lives on the line to battle this disease. Many lost their lives in the fight, and it's unfortunate they are not mourned more publicly.

We have not seen the last of Ebola, for sure, but we can hope for continuing vaccine research and public acknowledgement of the dangers. There will always be a new virus, a new threat, but what we can realistically hope for within our lifetimes is an eradication of the hideous death we expect from Ebola.

Another amazing and captivating book!

Richard Preston is an amazing author and this book does not disappoint! I loved it!

Reads Like A Heart Stopping Novel

Preston puts you in the middle of the story. I felt like I was witnessing the events myself.
The narrator did an excellent job.

Fantastic

Another excellent book by Richard Preston & a perfect sequel to Hot Zone!!! The story and narrator are fantastic. A Must read!!