Key facts
• Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often
fatal illness in humans.
• EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90%.
• EVD outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical
rainforests.
• The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population
through human-to-human transmission.
• Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.
• Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. No licensed specific treatment or
vaccine is available for use in people or animals.