Philippines pig farm worker infected with Ebola-Reston

Moral of the story: This is some nasty stuff, good thing it never spread out of Reston, VA when it was in the states. The return of this thing is scary, it can travel extremely quickly across the entire globe. I wouldn't be surprised if this pops up again fairly soon somewhere else.

Philippines pig farm worker infected with Ebola strain: WHO

By AFP - Fri Jan 23, 1:00 AM PST
MANILA (AFP) - A Philippine pig farm worker has tested positive for the Ebola-Reston virus, according to Health Secretary Francisco Duque and the World Health Organisation (WHO).


Piglets are seen at a small family farm outside the quarantined commercial pig farm infected with Ebola-Reston virus in Pandi town north of Manila on January 8. Philippine pig farm worker has tested positive for the Ebola-Reston virus, Health Secretary Francisco Duque and the WHO said Friday.(AFP/File/Romeo Gacad)
The strain is different from the Ebola sub-types found in Africa that cause deadly haemorrhagic fever in humans.
Duque told a news conference that the farm worker's blood carried the virus's anti-bodies.
"Otherwise, he is healthy and has no sign of any sickness," he said.
The identity and age of the infected worker and the location of the farm was not disclosed.
Duque said health authorities were still trying to find out how the farmer got the virus.
He said they were not prepared to say if the farm worker was infected by pigs.
The announcement came at the end of a WHO-led mission to the Philippines that investigated the viral outbreak on pig farms last year.
The government earlier quarantined several farms in the northern Philippine towns of Pandi and Talavera after the Ebola-Reston virus was discovered there.
This Ebola strain, which is found only in the Philippines, had been confined to monkeys. But the latest outbreak among pigs was the first time it has jumped species, and later infected humans.
Duque also clarified that only four pigs had tested positive for the virus among about 6,000 tested by authorities between July and September 2008.
Ebola-Reston was first detected in 1989 in laboratory monkeys sent from the Philippines to Reston, Virginia, in the United States.