New case of human ebola reston virus in the Philippines

 

 

Philippine health officials said Tuesday (February 24) that a pig farm worker had become the sixth person to test positive for antibodies to the non-lethal Ebola-Reston virus.

 

"Samples taken from a slaughterhouse worker in the northern Philippines showed signs of antibodies for Ebola-Reston, indicating he may have been infected with the virus in the past," a health department statement said.

 

The slaughterhouse worker, who hasn't been identified, had no direct contact with the sick pigs, the department said.

 

The announcement came almost a month after four pig farm workers and a butcher tested positive for the antibodies.

 

Scientists still are trying to determine if the six caught the virus from pigs. If such a link is proved, it would be the first time humans have contracted the disease from pigs.

 

The government earlier imposed quarantine on two farms in Bulacan and Pangasinan provinces after samples showed pigs were carrying the Ebola-Reston strain first found in monkeys exported from the Philippines to the US.

 

Samples from the farms showed that the virus still was spreading in Bulacan but not in Pangasinan, health officials said.

 

While recommending the lifting of the quarantine in the Pangasinan farm, the health department have ordered about 6,000 pigs to be culled in Bulacan.

 

The Ebola-Reston strain isn't deadly to humans, unlike the other known Ebola strains found in Africa.