1989

Outbreak!

The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus

In November of 1989 there was an outbreak of a strain of the deadly Ebola virus in a laboratory building in Reston just a few blocks from where I worked.  First discovered in 1976, Ebola is named after a village in Africa near the Ebola River and is one of the most lethal viruses in human history.  The virus usually ends with people dying from internal and external bleeding in which as many of the people contracting the disease dye a horrible death withing three weeks. In 1989 there was no vaccine or effective treatment for the disease. The only saving grace about the virus is that it is only transmitted by humans through contact with blood or bodily fluids.  The virus is thought to be initially carried and transmitted by bats and monkeys which people in Africa came into contact with.

The outbreak in Reston was at a company that imported monkeys for research at their facility known as the “monkey house” located at 1946 Isaac Newton Square in Reston.  In October, the facility received a shipment of 100 monkeys from the Philippines which soon after arriving, started dying. At first the researchers didn’t even consider Ebola, after the monkeys weren’t from the rain forests of Africa where the only known Ebola outbreaks had occurred. After the disease rapidly spread, many dying from blood running from their orifices, the facility contacted the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases who sent an intern to investigate who quickly determined it was a strain of Ebola.

Panic set in and all the monkeys in one room were killed to prevent the spread but soon monkeys in other rooms begin getting sick and dying, having no contact with the Philippines monkeys. The worst fears may have become reality, a strain of Ebola that can spread by airborne transmission.  Soldiers in biohazard suits, euthanized the monkeys pinning them down with long poles and injection from afar, television news satellite trucks camped outside. All the monkeys at the Reston facility, 450 of them, were euthanized./p>

AAlthough several of the workers exposed to the virus tested positive for antibodies, none fell ill with the virus.  Although deadly for monkeys, it turned out this strain was deadly for humans.  The strain is now called the Ebola Reston virus and is not believed to be transmitted by airborne, but was spread by monkey waste particles blasted into the air by high-pressure hose while washing the cages.

The story didn’t actually end then, after the facility was thoroughly sterilized, it began operations again importing more monkeys when, a year later, in 1990 the virus again returned. This time four lab workers tested positive for antibodies but never got sick./p>

AAfter the second outbreak, the entire building was torn down and a childcare facility was built in its place. In 1994 Richard Preston’s book, “The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus”, told the full story.  It is interesting to think that drove, walked, rode my bike, and ate at the Pizza Hut across the street from the facility while the facility was operating. 

 

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