Reston ebolavirus

Reston ebolavirus (REBOV / RESTV)belongs to genus Ebola virus which has other four species including Zaire Ebolavirus( ZEBOV / EBOV); Taï Forest ebolavirus (formerly Côte d'Ivoire ebolavirus, CIEBOV / TAFV,) and Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BEBOV / BDBV), Sudan eoblavirus (SUDV / SEBOV).Reston ebolaviruswas (REBOV / RESTV) first found in cynomolgus monkey which were transported from Philippines to the United States Virginia reston in 1989. Reston virus is named after Reston, Virginia, US, where the virus was first discovered. At that time, Reston ebolavirus has caused an outbreak of simian hemorrhagic fever. In February 1990, Reston ebolavirus again broke out in Reston, Texas and Philippines. In 1992 and 1996, more cases found in Tuscany and Texas. All infected monkeys had the same symptomas as simian hemorrhagic fever. Reston ebolavirus did not cause Ebola virus disease in exposed human although it is a level-4 organism.

The Philippines is still the only known geographic source of Reston ebolavirus (REBOV). Until the 2008 re-emergence of Reston ebolavirus (REBOV) infection in domestic pigs in the Philippines, only 1 species, the Macaca fascicularis orcynomolgus macaques in 1 laboratory animal breeding facility, was known to be naturally infected. Although serologic and epidemiologic evidence suggest that the virus can be transmitted to occupationally exposed in-dividuals, it has not caused the same overt serious illness in humans as the African ebolaviruses.

But on 11 December 2008, Reston ebolavirus (REBOV) was found in pigs. Several months later, a man who worked in a farm was infected with this virus. This was the first time that Reston ebolavirus (REBOV) infected human via pig-to –human transmission way. But the man was asymptomatic. It is concluded that Reston ebolavirus has a low pathogenicity in humans.

When Reston ebolavirus (REBOV) was detected in a different domestic animal species, the likelihood of further infection and the potential pathogenicity for humans cannot be discounted. Fol-lowing the isolation of Reston ebolavirus (REBOV) infection from domestic pigs in 2008, epidemiologic investigations were initiated by Philippine health and veterinary agencies in collab-oration with international filovirus experts. Prior to this, there were only 3 known, documented Reston ebolavirus (REBOV) out-breaks in nonhuman primates (NHPs) in the world, all traced back to a single source in the Philippines. The first outbreak in 1989 was the first-ever ebolavirus that emerged outside of Africa . It was also the first known natural infection of ebolavirus in NHPs. When it was first discovered among laboratory monkeys in the United States, the source was immediately traced back to the Philippines. The second outbreak was in 1992–93. The third episode in 1996 was the last known outbreak before Reston ebolavirus (REBOV) reemerged in pigs in 2008.