[A historical perspective of Ebola virus]

Abstract

The 2014 Ebola fever outbreak was the first of its kind in West Africa. This epidemic, affecting multiple countries, by far exceeded any previous outbreak in case counts and geographical spread. But Ebola viruses are not new to Africa, as they have occurred in epidemic proportion in the central part of the continent since 1976. The objective of this article is to compare previous outbreaks with the ongoing epidemic in an effort to identify some of the factors which have con-tributed to the size and scope of the existing outbreak.