The Biggest Ebola Epidemic So Far

Until 2014, all of the Ebola outbreaks tended to be limited to central Africa in rural villages close to forested areas. The first person infected with Ebola during this epidemic was a two-year-old named Emil who lived in a rural Guinea and village. He picked up the virus in December 2013, probably when he and a group of children were playing near a hollow tree occupied by a colony of bats. From there, the disease spread, eventually jumping beyond this index village, crossing borders and invading large urban areas where it spread like wildfire.