Ebola Reston

About Ebola Reston

Ebola Reston was discovered in 1989 when monkeys at a quarantine facility in Reston, Virginia, began dying from a filovirus. The virus, later named Ebola Reston, was imported with macaque monkeys from the Philippines. The facility, operated by Hazleton Research Products, housed hundreds of monkeys. The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases USAMRIID investigated. The event is documented in Richard Prestons 1994 book The Hot Zone. Several animal workers tested positive for Reston virus antibodies but never became ill; Reston virus is not known to cause disease in humans. The entire monkey colony was euthanized. The building was later demolished. Ebola Reston has since been found in pig populations in the Philippines, raising questions about its potential to adapt to new hosts. The Reston incident demonstrated the risk of emerging infections entering the US through imported animals and motivated improvements in primate quarantine protocols.