Ebola Virus Hits Monkeys in Texas Facility

The deadly Ebola virus has struck several monkeys imported into Texas from the Philippines, public health officials confirmed Monday as they worked to contain the outbreak at a primate quarantine facility.

Doctors have no reports of bites or scratches to monkey handlers at HRP Inc., in Alice, Texas, but are watching the employees carefully as a precaution, said state epidemiologist Dr. Diane Simpson.

Two monkeys out of a shipment of 100 have been found sick so far.

Federal experts diagnosed the Texas illnesses as similar to the Ebola strain that decimated a Reston, Va., monkey facility in 1989. The Reston strain appears less deadly to people than the killer Ebola found in the wild, explained Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman Bob Howard.

In Reston, four people were exposed to the bloody virus but never got sick.

Ebola is one of the world’s deadliest diseases, causing 80% of its victims to bleed to death. It is spread through bodily fluids, commonly through a break in the skin. It has no treatment and no cure.

Last year, in the central African nation of Zaire, Ebola infected 316 people and killed 245. Earlier this year, at least 13 people died from Ebola in Gabon in western Africa.

The sick Texas monkeys apparently came from the same Filipino exporter as the Reston monkeys did, and CDC officials will investigate that connection, Howard said.