Ravalli Republic - Daines Tours Rocky Mountain Labs; Scientists at Front Line of Fight Against Ebola

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By Perry Backus

In a few days, Rocky Mountain Laboratory's Dr. Vincent Munster will be in Liberia working to unlock the secrets of what's driving an outbreak of the Ebola virus that has already killed several thousand people.

On Tuesday, Munster took a break from making preparations with the two scientists who will accompany him to provide an update for U.S. Rep. Steve Daines about the globally significant work occuring at Hamilton's historic laboratory.

"The current Ebola outbreak in Liberia is something that we haven't experienced before on this scale," Munster told Daines. "It appears that it hasn't reached its plateau by far."

Munster's team will relieve another group of RML scientists who have spent the past three weeks studying the virus that's behind the outbreak.

Working in a country with few public health facilities and no high-tech laboratory, the scientists bring all the equipment they'll need to essentially recreate the Level 4 laboratory they depend on for their safety at RML.

"We'll try to minimize the threat as best we can," Munster said. "We'll work in a plastic bubble."

The current outbreak is occurring in a part of Africa where Ebola has not been an issue in the past. While the disease is widely known to cause victims to bleed from different orifices, Munster said that telltale symptom isn't always apparent in this outbreak.

Instead many victims' initial symptoms include general fever, vomiting, and diarrhea, "like 20 other diseases in that country," he said.

"This is happening in a place that's at the low end of the developed world," Munster told Daines. "There is a real lack of public health. They've never had an outbreak. They often don't realize they are dealing with Ebola until it's too late."

The disease has spread across borders and has now infected people from this country.

"This really underscores the need for a facility like this one," Munster told the congressman. "These kinds of outbreaks are not exotic any more. There is connectivity. We're not an island any more."

The scientist also talked about RML research that's helped uncover the cause of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, which kills about 40 percent of the people who contract it.

Initially, Munster said the virus was thought to jump from bats to humans, but researchers found that camels were actually the intermediate host of the virus.

While the virus would give camels a nasty cold, it was deadly to humans.

Researchers are currently working to develop a vaccine that can be given to camels to keep them from becoming infected in the first place.

This was Daines' first visit to the state-of-the-art facility. He had a chance to speak with researchers working in the lab's extensive electron microscopy section and histopathology departments.

"This is an impressive facility," Daines said after the tour.

"I'm proud of the world-class research that is going on right here in Hamilton, Montana. The research that's happening here has an impact not only in this country, but also the world."

The work being accomplished at RML illustrates how Montana's quality environment can be used to both recruit and retain some of the finest minds in the world, Daines said.

"Can you just imagine going to work here every day and knowing you are doing key research into something as devastating as Ebola?" Daines said. "That's remarkable."

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