First reports of Ebola
Witness History
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Introduction
Around 300 people died during the first documented outbreak of Ebola virus. Claire Bowes spoke to Dr. Jean-Jacques Mjembe and Dr. David Heyman, who worked to bring the outbreak under control. In 1976 at a small Belgian missionary hospital in a village in Northern Zaire, people are dying from an unknown disease with horrific symptoms. The affliction is characterized by a high temperature around 39 degrees centigrade,. frequent vomiting of black digested blood but of red blood in a few cases.
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