at Fort Detrick, Maryland, said their findings offered a little hope that perhaps a vaccine can be found against Ebola which, while extremely rare, is highly deadly. Some scientists think Ebola, which has killed several hundred people in Africa, may have unique abilities to evade the immune system in primates such as monkeys and humans. Writing in the journal Virology, the researchers said they used an experimental technique involving the Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) virus. They attached two proteins from the Marburg virus — Marburg glycoprotein and Marburg nucleoprotein. The VEE virus carries the proteins into the body, where the immune system can recognise and attack them, but the VEE itself causes no disease and the proteins do not either. Such a vaccine primes the immune system to more quickly recognise and attack the real Marburg virus. Marburg was considered unique until the first outbreak of Ebola in 1976 in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). There is no vaccine or treatment for either virus, which have been named filoviruses because of their filament-like shape. USAMRIID Commander Col. Gerald Parker said such a vaccine could be used to protect health care workers during future outbreaks of Marburg, and to shield laboratory workers studying the virus. Marburg virus is so dangerous it must be studied at Biosafety Level 4, the highest level of containment, where scientists wear positive-pressure "space suits" and breathe filtered air.