It is believed that the Ebola virus first emerged near the Ebola river in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1976. During the first epidemic, 284 people were infected with Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF, also known as Ebola virus disease or EVD), resulting in a 53% mortality rate. Later outbreaks have reported mortality rates of 88%, making Ebola one of the deadliest diseases known to humankind, exceeding the kill rate of the Black Death in the Middle Ages (Waterman, 1999).
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