At the very least, there are two Level-3 biolabs in New Orleans and a cluster of three in nearby Covington. They have been working with anthrax, mousepox, HIV, plague, etc. There are surely other labs in the city.
This sounds far too much like the intro to a horror/SF novel a vast plague, I am not at all comforted by the fact that all this is real. Thankfully, all of the diseases (and the creatures with them) were likely killed by the toxic water. What a mess...
The Tulane monkeys escape all the time.
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