Ground Zero (novel)

Ground Zero is the German title of the novel Carriers by Patrick Lynch . The book was published in 1995 and gave the author an immediate breakthrough.

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A novel virus is spreading into a disease in the Sumatra rainforest . The mortality rate is 100%, the virus causes hemorrhagic fever , comparable to Ebola and is transmitted by droplet infection . The Indonesian military tried unsuccessfully to prevent the virus from spreading through cordons. Little by little, the entire island becomes an infected area. Due to the delivery of primates for experimental purposes , there are also several deaths in the USA , but these are limited to the staff of the quarantine station . Another disease outbreak occurs in London after a scientist who wanted to study the long-term effects of deforestation in the rainforest became infected in Sumatra.

Carmen Travis, USAMRIID's chief pathologist, is sent with a team to Sumatra to find out the cause of the disease. In this context, the location of the epidemic outbreak is referred to as Ground Zero. The first point of contact for the team is the city of Muaratebo, as this is where the first official fatality occurred. This is the man who caught the primates mentioned above and sold them on.

The second main character is Holly Becker from New York . Her ex-husband is a botanist and works at the Rafflesia camp near Muaratebo. During the holidays, the two twin daughters visit their father. The epidemic broke out there too, so that contact with the camp was lost. Holly Becker makes her own way to the Rafflesia Camp and bypasses all barriers with the help of local people. When Holly arrives, the camp residents are dead and partially buried. Carmen Travis and her team arrive at the camp a few days later and suspect Holly's children to be among the dead due to the dead body.

Together, the team continues to search for the causes of the disease. They meet the surviving twins in the jungle. Through additional research by Carmen's colleagues in the USA, the solution emerges. Holly Becker underwent fertility treatment to get pregnant. In doing so, illegal gene experiments were also carried out. When the changed genetic structure of the twins met the environment of the Indonesian jungle, the supervirus was formed. So there is no geographic location of the outbreak and no transmission by animals.