MikeLigalig.com

RG Cruz, ABS-CBN News
Posted at 09/09/2015 3:09 PM


MANILA - The Department of Health (DOH) will hold a press conference Thursday to confirm the outbreak of the Ebola Reston virus among monkeys in the Philippines.

"We don't call it a crisis. We call it outbreak in so far as monkeys is concerned," Health Secretary Janette Garin said Wednesday.

"Definitely ito po ay nasa monkeys. We're just tracing any other information. Itong klase ng Ebola ang pinakamabait sa tao," she added.

(READ: Monkeys in PH facilities test positive for Ebola Reston virus)

She said the handlers of the monkeys are being given adequate protection. Garin declined to give details except to say this is limited to three areas.

DOH spokesperson Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy also assured that the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) was able to isolate the virus.

He explained they took it upon themselves to inform the public about Ebola Reston to avoid any confusion with the deadly Ebola virus now in Africa.

"No risk at all. Data would tell us while people are exposed, none of them developed illness because of Ebola Reston," he said.

While investigating an outbreak of Simian hemorrhagic fever (SHFV) in November 1989, an electron microscopist from USAMRIID named Thomas W. Geisbert discovered filoviruses similar in appearance to Ebola virus in tissue samples taken from Crab-eating Macaque imported from the Philippines to Hazleton Laboratories in Reston, Virginia. The filovirus was further isolated by Dr. Peter B. Jahrling, and over the period of three months over a third of the monkeys diedâ€"at a rate of two or three a day.

Blood samples were taken from 178 animal handlers during the incident. Of them, six eventually seroconverted, testing positive using ELISA. They remained, however, asymptomatic. In January 1990, an animal handler at Hazelton cut himself while performing a necropsy on the liver of an infected Cynomolgus. Under the direction of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the animal handler was placed under surveillance for the duration of the incubation period. When the animal handler failed to become ill, it was concluded that the virus had a low pathogenicity in humans. --Wiki



Cynomolgus, or Crab-eating Macaques, imported from the Philippines, were found to be carrying the filovirus.

whew! hinaot di maangin ang atong cute nga tarsiers.

Hmm, looks like this wee fella is beyond help now...

beyond infection, you mean. he's happy. obvious?