Hong Kong has reported a case with human infection of B virus, an extremely rare disease that can lead to severe brain damage or death.

Fatalities occur when affected persons do not get treatment immediately.

The virus is transmitted from macaque monkeys and has a fatality rate up to 90%.

According to preliminary investigations, the patient had contacts with wild monkeys and was wounded by them during his visit to Kam Shan Country Park in late February.

His family members also confirmed the incident.

There are ongoing epidemiological investigations at the moment.

According to CDC, only one case of an infected person spreading B virus to another person has been documented.

Considered the most heavily traded primate species in the world, long-tailed macaques are in high demand by the biomedical industry.
The United States has been using large numbers of endangered long-tailed macaques for lethal pharmaceutical testing since the 1970s.

Thailand has been raising and training Macaques to pick coconuts for hundreds of years. Coconuts farmers in Sri Lanka Malaysia, India and other countries in the region sometimes rely on monkeys too.

One of the monkeys could sell for as much as $60,000, however, the cost of trafficking these animals from their natural habitats to live in cages and face cruel experimentation is much higher.