MANILA, Sept 7 (PNA) — Malacanang on Monday assured the public that the Ebola strain in the Philippines does not affect people.
In a briefing, President Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the Department of Health (DOH) said the Ebola virus discovered in the Philippines was different from the one that affected people in Africa.
”This type of Ebola is called Ebola Reston and it has been discovered in the country a long time ago. The DOH has documented this and found out that it does not affect people,” he said.
Coloma added that the Philippine Inter-Agency Committee on Zoonosis, which was established in 2011 through Administrative Order No. 10 and consists of the DOH, Department of Agriculture (DA), and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), continues to implement programs and strategies to prevent, control and eradicate zoonotic diseases or those that are transferred from animals to persons and vice versa.
Last Sept. 5, the DOH confirmed that monkeys held in captive in an unnamed facility in the country have been discovered to have Ebola Reston Virus (ERV).
The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) has sent samples from the monkeys to Japan and Australia for confirmatory tests. (PNA)