Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
It is a viral haemorrhagic fever of humans and other primates caused by ebola viruses.
It was first identified in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo in a village near the Ebola River, from which it takes its name.
It is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
Fruit bats are natural host of this virus.
It spreads through contact with body fluids of inflected persons such as blood, urine and saliva.
It also spreads through sexual transmission.
Symptoms faced by people who have contracted the Ebola virus include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage.
The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%. However, in past outbreaks case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90%.
In 2014, Ebola virus had erupted periodically mainly across west and east Africa mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Treatment: There is as yet no proven treatment available for EVD. However, a range of potential treatments including immune therapies, blood products and drug therapies are currently being evaluated.