Ebola (subtype Reston) virus among quarantined nonhuman primates recently imported from the Philippines to the United States.

In April 1996, laboratory testing of imported nonhuman primates (as mandated by quarantine regulations) identified 2 cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) infected with Ebola (subtype Reston) virus in a US-registered quarantine facility. The animals were part of a shipment of 100 nonhuman primates recently imported from the Philippines. Two additional infected animals, who were thought to be in the incubation phase, were identified among the remaining 48 animals in the affected quarantine room. The other 50 macaques, who had been held in a separate isolation room, remained asymptomatic, and none of these animals seroconverted during an extended quarantine period. Due to the rigorous routine safety precautions, the facility personnel had no unprotected exposures and remained asymptomatic, and no one seroconverted. The mandatory quarantine and laboratory testing requirements, put in place after the original Reston outbreak in 1989-1990, were effective for detecting and containing Ebola virus infection in newly imported nonhuman primates and minimizing potential human transmission.

Clinical virology of Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF): virus, virus antigen, and IgG and IgM antibody findings among EHF patients in Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1995.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) patients treated at Kikwit General Hospital during the 1995 outbreak were tested for viral antigen, IgG and IgM antibody, and infectious virus. Viral antigen could be detected in virtually all patients during the acute phase of illness, while antibody was not always detectable before death. Virus was also isolated from patients during the course of their febrile illness, but attempts to quantify virus in Vero E6 cells by standard plaque assay were often unsuccessful. IgG and IgM antibody appeared at approximately the same time after disease onset (8-10 days), but IgM persisted for a much shorter period among the surviving convalescent patients. IgG antibody was detectable in surviving patients through about 2 years after onset, the latest time that samples were obtained. Detection of Ebola virus antigens or virus isolation appears to be the most reliable means of diagnosis for patients with suspected acute EHF, since patients with this often-fatal disease (80% mortality) may not develop detectable antibodies before death.

Short report: lack of virus replication in arthropods after intrathoracic inoculation of Ebola Reston virus.

To evaluate the potential for arthropods to serve as reservoir hosts of Ebola virus, three mosquito species, Aedes albopictus, Aedes taeniorhynchus, and Culex pipiens, and a soft tick, Ornithodoros sonrai, were inoculated with 1O2.5 plaque-forming units of Ebola Reston virus. After incubation at 22 degrees C for 11 days, at least six specimens of each species were triturated and examined for evidence of viral replication by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and plaque assay. There was no evidence of viral replication in any of the arthropods tested. Because intrathoracic inoculation bypasses various barriers to viral infection, the lack of replication of Ebola Reston virus in these inoculated arthropods indicates that these mosquito species and soft ticks probably are not involved as natural reservoirs of Ebola virus.

Characterization of Oliveros virus, a new member of the Tacaribe complex (Arenaviridae: Arenavirus).

Oliveros virus is an agent isolated in cell culture from Bolomys obscurus (Rodentia, Muridae, Sigmodontinae) captured on the central Argentine pampa. Oliveros virus was shown to be related to members of the Tacaribe complex of the family Arenaviridae by immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) tests, electrophoretic pattern of viral proteins, and morphology as observed by electron microscopy. It was distinct from 12 other arenaviruses by a combination of plaque-reduction neutralization tests, comparison of endpoint titers among cross-IFA tests, and comparison of viral RNA sequence data. This agent is the third new arenavirus from South America described within the last three years.

Isolation and initial characterization of a newfound hantavirus from California.

A fatal case of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in northern California prompted our attempt to isolate viruses from local rodents. From tissues of two deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus, two hantaviruses (Convict Creek virus 107 and 74, CC107 and CC74) were established in cell culture. Viral antigens, proteins, and RNAs of the first and archetypical isolate (CC107) were examined, and portions of the medium (M) and small (S) genome segments of both isolates were sequenced. Antigenically, CC107 virus and the second isolate, CC74 virus, were more closely related to Puumala virus than Hantaan (HTN) virus, though distinct from both. Northern blots of viral RNAs showed the large and M segments of CC107 to be the same size as those of HTN virus, whereas the S segment was larger. Protein gels did not reveal CC107 to have a substantially larger nucleocapsid protein than HTN virus. Partial nucleotide sequence comparisons of CC107 and CC74 viruses revealed their M segments to be highly similar to one another, while their S segments differed by more than 10%. Nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence comparisons showed the California isolates to be closely related to the newfound hantaviruses first detected in the Four Corners area and since incriminated in HPS through wide areas of the United States.