Western African Ebola virus epidemic

The West African Ebola epidemic was the largest outbreak of Ebola virus disease in history. It began in December 2013 in a village in southern Guinea and spread to the neighbouring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone, where weak health systems and the movement of people into crowded cities helped the virus to spread. The World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency in August 2014. More than eleven thousand people died, and a small number of cases were taken to or diagnosed in Europe and the United States. Health workers, international aid and community education eventually brought the outbreak under control, and experimental vaccines and treatments were tested during the epidemic.

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