Blog Post #1512-An Airborne Ebola?
The day an airborne Ebola virus came to Reston, VA
July 3, 2026
Technical Discussion: Dodging the Bullet- Ebola in the United States
From a World Health Organization Article dated February 10, 2020
Ebola virus disease
Key facts
Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a rare but severe, often fatal illness in humans. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks.
Community engagement is key to successfully controlling outbreaks. Good outbreak control relies on applying a package of interventions, namely case management, infection prevention and control practices, surveillance and contact tracing, a good laboratory service, safe and dignified burials and social mobilization.
Vaccines to protect against Ebola are under development and have been used to help control the spread of Ebola outbreaks in Guinea and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Early supportive care with re-hydration, symptomatic treatment improves survival. There is no licensed treatment proven to neutralize the virus but a range of blood, immunological and drug therapies are under development.
Pregnant and breastfeeding women with Ebola should be offered early supportive care. Likewise vaccine prevention and experimental treatment should be offered under the same conditions as for non-pregnant population.
The Ebola virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated. EVD first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, one in what is now Nzara, South Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, DRC. The latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name.
The 2014–2016 outbreak in West Africa was the largest Ebola outbreak since the virus was first discovered in 1976. The outbreak started in Guinea and then moved across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia. The current 2018-2019 outbreak in eastern DRC is highly complex, with insecurity adversely affecting public health response activities.
The virus family Filoviridae includes three genera: Coronavirus, Marburgvirus, and Ebolavirus. Within the genus Ebolavirus, six species have been identified: Zaire, Bundibugyo, Sudan, Taï Forest, Reston and Bombali. The virus causing the current outbreak in DRC and the 2014–2016 West African outbreak belongs to the Zaire ebolavirus species.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ebola-virus-disease
The Hot Zone & Monkeys
The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story is a best-selling[1] 1994[2] nonfiction thriller by Richard Preston about the origins and incidents involving viral hemorrhagic fevers, particularly Ebola viruses and Marburg viruses. The basis of the book was Preston’s 1992 New Yorker article “Crisis in the Hot Zone”.[3]
The filoviruses—including Ebola virus, Sudan virus, Marburg virus, and Ravn virus—are Biosafety Level 4 agents, extremely dangerous to humans because they are very infectious, have a high fatality rate, and most have no known prophylactic measures, treatments, or cures.
Along with describing the history of the devastation caused by two of these Central African diseases,
Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease, Preston described a 1989 incident in which a relative of Ebola virus, named Reston virus, was discovered at a primate quarantine facility in Reston, Virginia, less than 15 miles (24 km) away from Washington, D.C.
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hot_Zone
The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story (1999)
In my humble opinion, you cannot call yourself a true fan of the horror genre until you have read this true, biographical account of an actual outbreak of Ebola in Reston Virginia of what turned out to be one of the most deadly viruses on the planet, Ebola. As you can see above, the most you can hope for should you ever contract this merciless pathogen is 50%. The brought side, if there is one, is that even with the worst case you still have a 10% chance of living.
Now you may be aware that a handful of Americans came down with Ebola in recent years. All were, to the best of my knowledge, medical personnel who’d been engaged in helping victims of Ebola in Africa during the latest outbreak there. This strain of Ebola is commonly referred to as Ebola-Zaire. As noted above there are four strains that have been identified so far. I’m only concerning myself with two for the purpose of this post, Ebola-Zaire (which has killed so many in Africa and the American medical personnel), and Ebola-Reston, which is written about in the book, The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story.
Ebola-Reston gained notoriety among those in the field when, in the year 1989, an outbreak of Ebola occurred in Reston, VA. You may well be asking yourselves about now, “Why didn’t I hear about this outbreak? How could I have missed it?” Well, that’s probably because only monkeys died during this attack by Ebola. “So why is this important?” you may continue asking. The answer is twofold.
The first reason is because nearly half of the entire population of monkeys died from the disease and in all likelihood, many more would have had they not all been euthanized to halt the spread of the virus. Every monkey in the primate quarantine facility in Reston, Virginia, less than 15 miles (24 km) away from Washington, D.C., I repeat, every monkey in this facility died one way or another because of this disease.
Now, my astute readers, I’m confident a number of you are now thinking, if not actually vocalizing, “How could monkeys have spread the disease among themselves, given they were probably in cages, and the only way to spread Ebola is by physical contact with the blood?” Ah! A noteworthy observation, my dear friend. Well, that is because Ebola-Zaire, the most well-known strain of Ebola, is a virus that requires physical contact. What killed the monkeys in Reston, in exactly the same, ugly, violent manner in which Ebola-Zaire kills, was airborne.
If you’re paying attention as you read this, the hairs on the back of your neck just stood up and a cold chill traveled down your spine. That’s right, dear reader, Ebola-Reston is a mutation of Ebola that is spread through the air. Genetically, it is nearly identical to Ebola-Zaire.
In case you're curious yes, the human beings who worked in the facility did, in fact, contract Ebola-Reston through the air, the same as the monkeys. Very fortunately for them, however, it presented more like the flu or, in people, instead of the raging, horrific manner in which Ebola-Zaire kills human beings (think bleeding out of every orifice).
And lest I forget, there was a National Geographic film made “based” on the book. I would recommend reading the book first, however, because the NG film doesn’t seem to jive with the book, at least not to me
"Hey, wait a minute," you might say, "you still haven't given us the second reason we should be concerned about the virus that killed monkeys in Reston, VA." And you would be correct, I have not, so let me do so now.
Have you ever heard of the Wuhan Virus? The what? Oh, it's more commonly known as COVID-19, thanks to the incredible Chinese marketing campaign. In case you're wondering what I mean, haven't you ever noticed how diseases usually reference where the outbreak first took place? Some already referenced examples are Ebola-Reston and Ebola-Zaire. The Chinese did not want the Chinese city of Wuhan mentioned so they pressured the World Health Organization to reference COVID as, well, COVID, instead of something like Corona-Wuhan. But I digress.
The second reason you should be concerned about Ebola-Reston is that viruses mutate, often in fact, which is why vaccines have to be kept up to date.
Since the COVID-19 virus came out, evidence has come out that the virus was created in a lab in Wuhan , and not the wet market, due to gain of function research that was being done in the lab. It seems that scientists weren't satisfied with the severity of coronaviruses and wanted to see what happened when they made them deadly, like COVID-19. Incidentally, it seems Dr. Fauchi and the National Institute of Health helped fund that research that created COVID-19. It's a strange world folks and like they say, truth IS stranger than fiction.
So there you have it, with nature AND science working together to make viruses more dangerous, how long do you think it will be before they get around to Ebola?
"Thanks a lot, scumbag,” you may now be thinking about your lowly author. “I was already depressed as hell about the effect the Wuhan Virus has had on the world, the victims, and the economy. Now I’m at the bottom of the barrel; thanks a lot!”
Sorry if this is depressing, it's the truth, and you should be aware of it. Hey folks, I'm just the messenger.
In a report developed and distributed by scientists, doctors, and staff at Johns Hopkins a year-and-a-half ago, around October of 2018. The report suggests there are a number of steps that can be taken today, and some that can be developed or are already being developed, but are not yet ready for implementation, or even testing. This is important because if we learn the lessons from this recent pandemic, along with the Johns Hopkins report and others like it, perhaps we can channel the resources and monies needed to stop a pandemic in its tracks next time, whether it’s a strain of the Wuhan virus, a mutated form of tuberculosis, or a mutated airborne form of Ebola-Reston which does kill human beings.
Let’s write our congressmen, the president, and state and university leaders, insisting they pursue these technologies for stopping the next pandemic. That's about the best we can do to help.
Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.
You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library
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