
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 25, 1995                   TAG: 9510250089
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RESTON                                LENGTH: Short

EBOLA `HOT ZONE' SITE REOPENS - FOR CHILDREN

Where 450 monkeys infected with or exposed to a form of the deadly Ebola virus were quarantined and put to death in 1989 by soldiers, children now frolic at a day-care center.

PALS Early Learning Center opened Monday with a party on the same piece of ground that was home to Hazleton Laboratories Corp.'s Reston Primate Quarantine Unit.

The quarantine unit and the Ebola outbreak were the basis for the best-selling book, ``The Hot Zone.''

Some forms of Ebola are extremely deadly. The strain that broke out in Reston, called Ebola Reston, kills monkeys but does not harm people. After the scare, the building was never occupied again.

In 1993, Atlantic Realty Cos. of Tysons Corner bought the building. It was in such sorry shape that the company tore the building down and built a 32,000-square-foot commercial complex on the site.

PALS is the first business to move into the complex. A quick printing company and the American Woodworking Institute will move there soon.

The day-care center had operated nearby for 20 years. PALS co-owner Lynn Lilienthal said its owners met with parents before the move to relieve fears about the virus.

``I think they wanted to be reassured the virus wasn't there,'' Lilienthal said. Reports from the government - mostly from the national Centers for Disease Control - assured parents that the virus had been removed completely.

The Ebola virus causes a disease that is transmitted through bodily fluids and secretions. It kills 50 percent to 90 percent of those it infects, and there is no vaccine.

by CNB