Rare and fatal, Ebola virus disease (EVD) affects both humans and nonhuman primates. EVD-causing viruses are primarily found in sub-Saharan Africa. There are sporadic outbreaks of the deadly Ebola virus disease (EVD), which is primarily found in Africa. EVD mostly affects nonhuman primates and people (such as monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees). It is brought on by an infection with a subfamily of the ebolavirus:
• Ebola Virus
• Sudan virus
• Bundibugyo virus
• Reston virus
• Bombali virus
Along the Ebola River now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Ebola virus was originally identified in 1976. The virus has been periodically infecting humans ever since, causing outbreaks in numerous African nations. Scientists are unsure of the Ebola virus’s ancestor. Based on similar viruses, they believe that bats or nonhuman primates are the most likely sources of EVD transmission. Humans, apes, monkeys, duikers, and other animals can contract the virus from infected animals carrying it.
Despite contact with the blood, bodily fluids, and tissues of animals, the virus first infects humans. Then, whenever they come into direct contact with an EVD patient’s or victim’s bodily fluids, the Ebola virus spreads to other victims. This might take place if a person comes into contact with some contaminated materials or bodily fluids. The virus then enters the body via rashes or damaged mucous membranes in the mouth, nose, or eyes. You can contract the virus by having sex with someone who has EVD or has healed from it. The virus may remain in some physiological fluids, such as semen, long after the sickness has subsided.
Emergence of Ebola
In 1976, two epidemics of deadly haemorrhagic fever spread across several regions of Central Africa, prompting the discovery of the Ebola virus disease (EVD), one of the deadliest viral diseases. The Ebola River gave the virus its name, and the initial outbreak took place there in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) at a community close to it. In what is now South Sudan, around 850 kilometres (500 miles) away, a second outbreak took place.
When both outbreaks first began, public health officials thought they were related to a single incident involving a sick person who travelled between the two cities. But later research revealed that the two epidemics were actually caused by the Sudan ebolavirus and the Zaire ebolavirus. Scientists concluded as a result of this finding that the virus had two distinct origins and had independently spread to humans in each of the affected areas.
The Ebola virus may have existed long before these documented outbreaks took place, according to viral and epidemiologic data. The Ebola virus may have spread as a result of factors like population increase, expansion into wooded areas, and direct contact with wildlife (such eating bush meat).
Since its discovery in 1976, Africa has seen the majority of Ebola virus disease incidences. The West African Ebola outbreak that occurred between 2014 and 2016 started in a rural area of southeast Guinea, quickly expanded to cities and across borders, and within months, became a worldwide epidemic.