When news broke earlier this year that another monkey had died at the Harvard-owned New England Primate Research Center on Parmenter Road – the fourth such death at the facility in less than two years – many of you asked how much our town knows about what goes on in the research center and how it’s run.
Town officials heard your concerns and a few weeks ago visited the center for a tour. The Metrowest Daily News reports they were impressed with what they saw.
(Board of Health Chairman Louis Fazen III) said he asked a number of questions relating to public health at the center and was satisfied that Harvard has exhaustive measures in place to keep people and animals safe.
He described going to the center as stepping “into another world.” He and selectmen donned protective suits before going in because of a potentially fatal disease that monkeys can pass on to humans.
Fazen said the disease is a kind of herpes among monkeys that can cause central nervous system problems and death in humans.
“It’s something (the researchers) have to live with,” and they take it very seriously, he said.
Selectmen Dan Kolenda and Bill Boland accompanied Fazen on the visit. You can read more in this article by the MWDN.
Worth a note that Louis Fazen is an M.D. (Not a veterinarian, but still with a medical background that would be of value in this situation.)