Team To Halt Export Of Ebola-Infected Monkeys

American scientists will set up a laboratory and a primate survey system in the Philippines to help prevent more Ebola-infected monkeys from being exported to the United States.

The two-week visit by a team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which arrived Saturday, was prompted by the discovery of Ebola virus among 100 monkeys shipped to a Texas primate center last month.

The Texas virus is almost identical to a strain that struck a Reston, Va., primate center in 1989. The monkeys in Reston also came from Philippines.

The Philippine strain does not appear to infect or harm humans, said Dr. Thomas G. Ksiazek, head of the CDC team and deputy chief of the center’s Special Pathogens Branch.