''Outbreak'' is a

medical thriller Medical fiction is fiction whose events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment. It is highly prevalent on television, especially as medical dramas, as well as in novels. The depiction of medical institutions and the ...

written by

Robin Cook Robert Finlayson "Robin" Cook (28 February 19466 August 2005) was a British Labour politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 until his death in 2005 and served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 until 2001 whe ...

and published in 1987 which deals with an outbreak of the deadly

Ebola Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after becom ...

virus in the United States. Despite its name and similar storyline, the book is not related to the 1995 movie also called ''

Outbreak In epidemiology, an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire ...

''. In 1995, the book was adapted into a film and released under the title "'' Robin Cook's Virus"'', later renamed ''Formula for Death'', starring

Nicollette Sheridan Nicollette Sheridan (born 21 November 1963) is an English-born American actress. She began her career as a fashion model before landing a role in the short-lived ABC primetime soap opera ''Paper Dolls'' in 1984, as well as starring in the roman ...

and

William Devane William Joseph Devane (born September 5, 1939) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Greg Sumner on the primetime soap opera '' Knots Landing'' (1983–1993) and as James Heller on the Fox serial dramas '' 24'' (2001–2010) and '' ...

Synopsis

When the director of a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

health maintenance clinic succumbs to an untreatable and virulently contagious virus, killing himself and seven of his patients, the

Center for Disease Control The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...

in Atlanta responds immediately with a state of high alert . Unless the virus is isolated and checked, mankind may be facing its gravest medical crisis since the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

. Assigned by the CDC to investigate the disease, Dr. Marissa Blumenthal is soon caught up in the ultimate nightmare. The California case is merely the first in a burgeoning series of outbreaks that occur in unrelated geographical areas but with puzzling commonalities: The locations are always health-care facilities, and the victims are only physicians and their patients. As her investigation takes increasingly bizarre turns, Marissa finds that behind the natural threat lurks a far more sinister possibility: sabotage. Before she discovers the truth, Marissa must overcome her superiors' fury, her colleagues' doubts and the wrath of a powerful cabal, sworn to achieve its aims, no matter what the cost in human life, including Marissa's.

Publication information

* Cook, Robin. (1987) ''Outbreak''.

References

External links

at robincook.com
1987 American novels Macmillan Publishers books Medical novels Novels by Robin Cook Novels about viral outbreaks Ebola in popular culture {{1980s-thriller-novel-stub