DOH Confirms Worker Infected with Ebola-Reston

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Latest Pig Industry News

Friday, January 23, 2009

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DOH Confirms Worker Infected with Ebola-Reston

THE PHILIPPINES - The Department of Health (DOH) confirmed that one farm worker in the Philippines has been infected with Ebola-Reston antibodies, officials announced today.

ABS-CBN News reports that the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) said this is likely to be an old infection contracted more than six months ago.

The person is healthy and has had no serious illness in the past 12 months, said Dr. Enrique Tayag, director of the Department of Health's National Epidemiology Center.

The government ban on pork exports is still in effect.

The source of the virus is still being determined, and the scientific investigation is still on-going.

Experts from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health, and the World Health Organization are in the Philippines to investigate the discovery of a strain of the Ebola virus in some dead pigs in the Philippines.

The Philippines had asked the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for help in stopping the spread of Ebola-Reston virus after an infection was found in some hog farms last year.

The presence of the Ebola-Reston virus in some pigs in two commercial farms and two backyard farms in the country was the first such case anywhere in the world.

ThePigSite News Desk