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12/3/14
Gene Johnson
*top left- scientist at Kitum Cave, top right- tarp used in the cave, bottom left- lights used to attract insects, bottom
right - monkey in its cage*
Johnson and I happened to find a dead monkey and carefully removed the monkey before
performing the autopsy. We found that the monkey was filled with blood and the liver, lungs, and
other organs was ruined. We broke into the monkey's skull and found that his brain and blood
vessels were severely congested. Evidence of a stroke was also present due to blood clotting and
severe blood loss. The cause of death was most likely loss of blood and fluids, organ failure, and
blood vessel degeneration in the brain.
* on the left: monkey brain, picture on right: on far left are scissors, tweezers to
the right, a scalpel to the right of the tweezers, and finally the pin on far right*
I started with the appearance of the monkeys and stomach contents and saw that they showed
signs of anorexia, which can cause a monkey to die off quickly. When I worked my way to the
organs I noticed that the spleen was extremely swollen, there was dryness near incision areas,
enlarged kidneys, and some hemorrhaging in the organs. Alarmed by the size of the spleen I
decided to try to make an incision and look inside, but I ran into a problem when the scalpel
practically ricocheted off the spleen! This was highly strange since the spleen is usually
extremely easy to cut into. When I took a closer look I realized why the scalpel wasn't doing
much of anything. It was because the spleen was almost entirely a blood clot..
I took a small sample of the spleen and a swab of the monkeys throats to preserve any virus
until I can call Usamriid to take a look at everything to fully identify the disease the monkeys are
suffering from.
Dan Dalgard
*top left - monkey spleen, top right - scalpel, bottom left - specimen container and bag, bottom right - throat swab.
Journal Entry #4: Do these monkeys really have SHF? (Pg. 191-198)
Today is November 27, 1989. I arrived at work prepared to take a look at a button of dead
monkey cells harvested from the monkeys at the Reston Quarantine Unit. My goal with looking
at these cells was to come to an idea on what kind of disease the monkeys were catching. I took
the flask that holds the cells into the cutting room so I could slice the cells in small pieces to
observe them through a microscope more thoroughly.
I took a diamond knife and inserted it into the cutting machine, cut the cells into small slices,
and placed them into droplets of water. I then used an eyelash on a stick to separate the cells
from each other, and then using a copper grid and tweezers I collected the cells onto it. I placed
the slide onto a microscope, turned the lights off and took a look at the slide.
While I was taking a look at the cells I realized something terrifying. The cells were an
absolute mess.. They looked almost as if theyd been blown apart, and the cells were crawling
with worms. From past knowledge I recognized this look as the look of a filovirus. I then quickly
snapped pictures of the slides and rushed into a dark room to look at the negatives. The virus
looked like snakes on the negatives, and the cell was scarily similar to a chocolate chip except
the chocolate resembled crystal like blocks of the virus. The virus was literally getting ready to
hatch and multiply.. That's when I had a unsettling thought that Marburg might be the virus that I
was looking at.
-
Tom Geisbert
* top left is a diamond knife, top right - microscope, middle left - cells with Ebola, middle right - tweezers, bottom
left - copper grid, bottom right - Ebola *