Emergency Response and Preparedness Requirements and Guidance for Ebola Virus

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) was first identified in 1976, when it first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, in Nzara, Sudan, and in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The virus is named after the Ebola River, which runs near the Congolese village where one of the first outbreaks happened.  Genus Ebola virus is 1 of 3 members of the Filoviridae family (filovirus), along with genus Marburgvirus and genus Cuevavirus. Genus Ebola virus comprises 5 distinct species: BDBV, EBOV, and SUDV have been associated with large EVD outbreaks in Africa, whereas RESTV and TAFV have not. The RESTV species, found in Philippines and the People’s Republic of China, can infect humans, but no illness or death in humans from this species has been reported to date. EVD received a lot of popular attention due to the best-seller, “The Hot Zone” and the Hollywood blockbuster movie, Outbreak, which the focused on an outbreak of a fictional Ebola-like virus called Motaba in Zaire and later in a small town in the United States.

Detail fact on Ebola and Chronology of previous Ebola virus disease outbreaks can be found here: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/