People handle serious illnesses in many different ways. In the novel, The Hot Zone we see all the ways people around the world deal with deadly thread viruses. For example, on page 46 and 47 Nancy Jaax wants to get a job working with these deadly viruses because she wants to figure out how it works. She will do anything to get job and eventually does. This is one way people deal with serious illnesses, by being curious and potentially putting themselves at risk. Another example from the novel is on page 77 when it says, "They were using five needles a day to give injections to hundreds of people in the hospital's outpatient and maternity clinics." The novel is referring to nurses. These nurses didn't have enough knowledge about the deadly disease to know that what they were doing was terribly wrong. This is another way people can deal with illnesses. They don't have enough education about them so they just don't think anything of them. In my personal experience I have seen yet another way that people deal with illness. These are the people who refuse to accept it. More commonly they refuse to except it because they themselves have it and either are so scared that they ignore it or they think they can still do everything they normally do without being infected. I see this in my sister because when she gets sick she still participates in sports and school which infects other people and also makes her condition worse.

One ethical dilemma in the novel The Hot Zone is testing viruses on monkeys. One side of this argument is the people who are against using monkeys as test subjects. Animal abuse is most likely the biggest reason using animals is frowned upon because they do have the possibility of dying as well as suffering from the virus they are tested with. Many people who are against using animals often question why scientists don't just test humans instead of animals if that is who they are using the data for. The opposing side is the people who agree that using animals is totally fine and humane. They could use the argument that humans have more to live for or that there is an abundance of animals around the world rather than humans. In the novel The Hot Zone, Nancy Jaxx is impacted by this ethical dilemma when she goes in to observe the monkeys that have died from Ebola. While she is doing her job she thinks of how her title requires her to make sure animals are safe and are not being treated "unfairly" but also requires her to help the human race and keep them safe. This puts Nancy on both sides of the issue and she is faced with the puzzling question of if testing Ebola on monkeys is the right thing to do.