The Hot Zone: Part 1, Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

Preston visits Gene Johnson near Fort Detrick. The scientist recounts his discovery that Peter Cardinal and Charles Monet had both been at Kitum Cave. Afterwards, Johnson flew out to Kenya and talked with David Silverstein. The two retraced Peter’s trail through Kenya, and interviewed his grieving parents. The biggest mystery was why Peter had contracted Marburg, but his sister had not. His parents mentioned, however, that Peter was an aspiring geologist, and that he had collected crystals from Kitum Cave. It seemed possible that an Ebola-contaminate crystal had perhaps cut Peter’s finger. Next, Johnson and Silverstein traveled to Kitum Cave itself, despite fears that Marburg could be transmitted through the air.

The year before Peter Cardinal’s death, in 1986, Gene Johnson had infected monkeys through their lungs with Marburg and Ebola, meaning that if the particles were inhaled, they could indeed cause an infection. Therefore to investigate the cave, Johnson required his team to wear military gas masks. To cover their heads, they comically made do with flowered pillowcases. After a short visit to Kitum Cave, Johnson got the Army to fund a major research expedition, and in 1988 he traveled to Nairobi with a full team of thirty-five scientists and staff, many of whom were Kenyans. Beforehand, the team discussed what to do if one of them died of Marburg. Along with Johnson came Dr. Peter Tukei. First, the team fills cages with guinea pigs and three different kinds of monkeys. Then they put these animals in the cave. If one of the animals came down with Marburg, then the scientists would know that the virus indeed lived in the cave, and could perhaps detect how the animal had contracted it.

The Kitum Cave expedition moves into an old English hunting lodge from the 1920s, and gradually moves the animals up the mountain. They assume that the cave is a Level 4 hot zone, and create a decontamination area outside of it. To go into the cave, they wear orange spacesuits called Racals. These suits are lighter than the Chemturion suits used at USAMRIID, and are also completely portable and disposable. Wearing the suits, they create a trail leading into Kitum Cave, and place the animals inside. They collect insects in order to test them for Marburg as well. In addition to the test animals and the insects, naturalists on the expedition also trap hundreds of species of birds, rodents, and bats, dissecting them and taking samples of blood and tissue. They also take blood from the Elgon Masai, the local tribe, as well as their cattle. Although no one in the nearby villages has been infected, they do tell stories of an Ebola-like virus.

After weeks of this, however, none of the monkeys becomes ill. In fact, the expedition finds not a hint of Marburg virus within the cave—a terrible disappointment for Gene Johnson. Despite the apparent waste of the expedition, however, Preston suggests that Johnson’s knowledge and experience may still be useful in the future. He stores his gear in USAMRIID, ready at all times to combat an Ebola threat.

The Army sends Nancy and Jerry Jaax to the Institute for Chemical Defense near Aberdeen, MD. Nancy studies the effects of nerve tanks on rats, a safer but less interesting task than Ebola research. Both she and Jerry are promoted to lieutenant colonel, and their daughter Jaime becomes a young gymnast, while Jaison grows tall and quiet, like his father. Time passes, and Colonel Tony Johnson is appointed head of pathology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Remembering Nancy’s competence, he recommends that she take his place as chief of pathology at USAMRIID, and Nancy begins to work in a spacesuit once more. Jerry Jaax, meanwhile, becomes the head of USAMRIID’s veterinary division. The family moves back to Thurmont in the summer of 1989.