I was in bed sick all day this Wednesday and this was the perfect book to read. A fast-paced book that keeps you on the edge of your seat, this is an excellent quick read (for anyone who doesn't have a fear of Ebola). ( )

Creeped me out when I read it while living in Nairobi. ( )

En un centro médico de la ciudad de Los Ángeles varias personas mueren contagiadas de un terrible virus, casi siempre mortal, que se propaga con suma facilidad y rapidez: el ébola. Y, trágicamente, el mismo escenario se repite en varios centros médicos del país. Encargada de investigar la fuente de contagio del virus, la doctora Marissa Blumenthel, del Centro de Control de Enfermedades de Atlanta, intentará, al mismo tiempo, encontrar, lo más rápido posible, la cura antes de que el virus que hasta entonces sólo aparecía en los centros médicos, salga a las calles, lo que sería catastrófico...

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Since this book has to do with an outbreak of ebola, it has to do with testing on animals, too. It's something abhorrent to me, and it's the reason why I make sure that any health and beauty products I buy are not tested on animals. In an excerpt from the book:
" 'if it proves to be African viral hemorrhagic fever,' added Dr eckenstein.
'I'm convinced.' said Dr vreeland. 'And I think the monkey will turn out to be the culprit.'
'I didn't get samples from the monkey,' admitted Marissa quickly.
'That's okay,' said dubchek. 'We sacrificed the animal last night and sent specimens back to the center. Liver and spleen sections will be far better than blood.' "
"Marissa" is a former pediatrician, who took one course in epidemics, and got a job at the CDC. When there's an outbreak of some extremely contagious disease, in Los angeles, she is sent by the CDC to see if she can be of help.
An ophthalmologist named Richter has come down with a viral hemorrhagic fever. He's the founder of a clinic / hospital that is one of the first to have prepaid medical insurance.
That's all we have now, But at the time (the 80s) it was a new thing, that not all doctors were on board with.

Marissa has quite a few admirers among her colleagues, being petite and young. And she's not above using her charms to get what she wants.
Tad is a worker at the CDC in charge of the lab. She talks him into showing her the lab, even though it's required to have clearance to enter.
"Finally he led her down a passageway to a maze of animal cages that reached almost to the ceiling. There were monkeys, rabbits, Guinea pigs, rats and mice. Marissa could see hundreds of eyes staring at her: some listless, some with fevered hatred. In a far section of the room, Tad pulled out of tray of what he called Swiss ice mice. He was going to show them to marissa, but he stopped. 'My word!' He said. 'I just inoculated these guys this afternoon, and most have already died.' he looked at marissa. 'Your Ebola is really deadly - as bad as Zaire '76 strain.' "

Dr Dubchek is her immediate Superior at the CDC, and is the one responsible for continually rejecting her request for clearance to the lab.
When they get an outbreak of Ebola in St louis, Dr Dubchek let's Marissa know that he's attracted to her, and would like to go out with her. When she turns him down, feeling it's unprofessional to date your colleagues, it bruises his male ego, and throughout the rest of the book he treats her very rudely, and even gets her fired.
In fact, she finds herself treated condescendingly and rudely throughout the book, by almost every single male medical professional she comes in contact with. She seems to be extremely intelligent, and she's committed to tracking down the source of the Ebola, and she has to fight these patriarchs every inch of the way.

Marissa is getting closer to solving the mystery of the source of the ebola. And then, Marissa is attacked in her house in Atlanta by one of the thugs who is, though we don't know it yet, spreading the Ebola deliberately. Marissa's sweet little dog Taffy is dispatched by this criminal, and it's a really sad part of the book, because Marissa was very attached to this loving little dog. "Taffy" was given to her by a colleague, after her former fiance abruptly broke up with her and moved to a new job out of the area:
"In the distance, they heard the sound of a police siren approaching. Mr Judson [Marissa's neighbor] looked at his watch. 'Pretty good response time.'
'Taffy!' Cried marissa, suddenly remembering the dog. She ran back to the living room, with Tad and Mr Judson close behind.
The dog had not moved, and Marissa bent down and gingerly lifted the animal. Taffy's head dangled limply. Her neck had been broken.
Up until that moment Marissa had maintained cool control of her emotions. But now she began to weep hysterically...."

Here in 2022, the way healthcare is in this country, it's hard to believe what's put down in this next paragraph:
"Marissa ate some of the generous portion of fruit she'd ordered from room service for her breakfast that morning, peeling an apple with the sharp paring knife that had come with it. Now that her suspicions appeared to be true, she wasn't sure what to do next. The only thing she could think of was to go to Ralph's lawyer and tell him what she believed: that a small group of right-wing physicians were introducing Ebola into privately-owned clinics to erode public trust in HMOs....

Marissa has a beau who is a director at a hospital, and is using their connection to further his own agenda. It's nearly too late, when Marissa finds out he's not her friend:
"obviously, Ralph was a member of PAC. Of course he was a supporter of [Congressman] Markham. And it was Ralph, not Ted, who had always known where she was. Serving the eggs, Marissa thought that even if she could escape there was no one to go to. She certainly couldn't use a lawyer Ralph recommended. In fact, now that she knew Ralph was implicated, she remembered why the name of the law firm he'd suggested had sounded familiar: Cooper, Hodges, McQuinllin and Hanks had been listed as the servant agent of PAC.
Marissa felt trapped. The men pursuing her had powerful connections. She had no idea how deeply they had penetrated the CDC. Certainly the conspiracy involved the congressman who exerted control over the CDC budget. [And got Marissa fired.]"

This was just an "okay" book. I feel like this author is a wannabe Michael Crichton. ( )