Experts start Ebola probe

Human and animal health experts from the World Health Organization, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and World Organization for Animal Health and their local counterparts began yesterday their joint mission to investigate the Ebola Reston virus (ERV) that infected a number of hogs in Central Luzon.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III announced this in a joint press conference of the Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture, which is leading the mission, at the DA office in Quezon City.

The foreign experts met yesterday with their counterparts from the DOH’s National Epidemiology Center and DA’s Bureau of Animal Industry. They would soon visit hog farms in Bulacan and Pangasinan.

Duque said the mission would perform an “epidemiological investigation” of ERV, which was detected for the first time in some hogs in Bulacan, Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija a few months ago. 

“During the 10-day mission, the team will conduct further investigation to assess the risks to exposed animals and humans. The team will also evaluate our local capacity to deal with ERV and other zoonotic diseases, and develop protocols which will guide our national response to similar occurrences,” he added.

Duque, however, reiterated assurances that the virus has not infected any humans. “The government, together with our international partners, continues to emphasize that the presence of ERV is predominantly an animal health issue,” he said.

He said ERV is one of the five Ebola strains “but it has no evidence of significant risks to humans to date.” – With Marianne Go