By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard
Posted: 04/12/2009 01:26:06 AM PDT
Remember the 1995 hit movie “Outbreak?”
Parts of it were filmed here in Humboldt County, and Ferndale was supposed to be the fictional town of Cedar Creek. In the movie, a deadly virus (Motaba) passed from a Capuchin monkey to a human who went on to infect others and scores of unsuspecting people died as a result.
Pretty scary stuff. Now let's consider a small news item recently sent out by the Associated Press. At the Oregon National Primate Center, nine Japanese Macaque monkeys got out of their cage when a keeper accidentally left it unlocked. Five of the monkeys were quickly caught, but the other four remain on the loose. According to Jim Newman, an Oregon Health & Science University spokesman, officials watched three of the escapees from a distance, and tried to catch them in cages baited with apples.
It's that last monkey that concerns me. The missing monkey is thought to be somewhere on the Beaverton Primate campus. One more little thing about this primate, it's infected with a virus that could hurt people! Read the rest of the column here.
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