This attracted significant media attention due to Reston's location in the Washington metropolitan area and the lethality of a closely related Ebola virus.

[5] While investigating an outbreak of Simian hemorrhagic fever (SHFV) in November 1989, an electron microscopist from USAMRIID named Thomas W. Geisbert discovered filoviruses similar in appearance to Ebola virus in tissue samples taken from a crab-eating macaque imported from the Philippines to a facility operated by Hazleton Laboratories (now Fortrea) in Reston, Virginia.

In January 1990, an animal handler at Hazleton cut himself while performing a necropsy on the liver of an infected Cynomolgus.

Under the direction of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the animal handler was placed under surveillance for the duration of the incubation period.

It was suspected that the monkeys contracted both diseases while in transit aboard KLM Airlines before reaching Reston.

[17] By January 1990, Hazleton Laboratories recovered from its previous losses and began importing monkeys again from the same establishment in Manila that had provided the original animals.

In March, the Division of Quarantine at the CDC secured a temporary ban on the importation of monkeys into the United States from anywhere in the world.

[18] Following the announcement of the filovirus disease outbreak in Reston, Virginia, a serosurvey was conducted to assess the prevalence of the infection.

Of the several hundred serums received by the CDC, approximately ten percent showed some reaction to ebolavirus antigen—though usually at low levels.