With single-minded purpose, hundreds of viruses latch onto the walls of host cells. Vehemently, wriggling, they use the highly tangled shepherd’s crook, at one end to gain access to the cells. As the wall of the host cell contracts, it closes around the virus and engulfs it. Once this viral intruder has gained access, it sets to work, with the lethal intensity of an armed robber. Quickly it sheds the outer coating of protein, exposing the lethal core of RNA or DNA alternatively. Viciously it attacks the host cell, accomplishing total destruction of the host cell in approximately twenty-five minutes. With its mission successfully completed, the virus reproduces with a vehemence, moving into attacking position on the next host cell. Within hours, organs rupture and hemorrhage into themselves, filling body cavities with blood. Each droplet swarms with more viruses, and within a matter of days, the host dies. At the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, research is being done daily on viruses lethal to mankind. Members of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, known as the “Disease Cowboys”, visit and collect data from viral hot spots around the globe, in an effort to understand the enemy. Theoretically, every possible precaution is taken to prevent contagion, and theoretically, nothing could possibly go wrong. But to err is human, and one error could have disastrous results. When you put together a drug-crazed lab technician, an unscrupulous terrorist organization and a highly contagious deadly virus, it creates a terrifying scenario. It could be the start of the swift and terrible annihilation of human kind as we know it.
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