Reston virus was first described in 1989 when it caused fatal infection in monkeys and sub-clinical infection in humans in a primate research facility in Reston, Virginia, USA. The virus ‘disappeared’ for nearly 20 years until 2008-9 when it was identified in pigs and pig-workers in the Philippines. In 2010, a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional team assembled by the Philippine government and the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations sought to identify the origin of the virus in nature.