About Ebola News
Disease surveillance platform tracking Ebola across global regions.
About Ebola
What Is Ebola?
Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a severe, often fatal illness caused by the Ebola virus, a member of the Filoviridae family. It was first identified in 1976 in simultaneous outbreaks in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The average CFR is around 50%, ranging from 25% to 90% depending on outbreak and response.
Transmission
Ebola spreads through direct contact with blood, body fluids, or tissues of infected humans or animals. It can also spread through contact with contaminated surfaces or materials. Burial practices that involve direct contact with the deceased are a major transmission route during outbreaks.
Symptoms
Symptoms begin 2–21 days after exposure with sudden fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and sore throat. This progresses to vomiting, diarrhea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in severe cases, internal and external bleeding.
Geographic Distribution
Ebola outbreaks primarily occur in Central and West Africa. Major outbreaks include the 2014–2016 West Africa epidemic (28,000+ cases) and ongoing outbreaks in DRC, Uganda, and Guinea. The virus persists in animal reservoirs (fruit bats) across sub-Saharan Africa.
Data Sources
| ID | Name | Type | License | URL | Refresh | Reliability | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| owid | Our World in Data COVID-19 Dataset | CSV | CC BY 4.0 | link | 24h | 85% | COVID-19 case/death data (disabled — no longer tracked). |
| who_flu | WHO FluNet | API | WHO Terms | link | 24h | 95% | Global influenza surveillance data. Also covers other respiratory viruses. |
| global_health | Global.health Outbreak Data | CSV | CC BY 4.0 | link | 12h | 80% | Crowdsourced Ebola timeline with narrative case descriptions. Primary Ebola data source. |
| who_disease_news | WHO News RSS | RSS | WHO Public Data | link | 3h | 90% | WHO corporate news feed. Filtered for disease outbreak keywords. |
| who_don | WHO Disease Outbreak News | API | WHO Public Data | link | 6h | 85% | Structured DON articles via WHO OData API. Covers ebola, hantavirus, mpox, polio, and other PHEIC events. |
| gdelt | GDELT Project | API | CC0 | link | 15min | 60% | Global news monitor. Lower reliability but highest frequency. Good for early detection. |
| cdc_nndss | CDC NNDSS Hantavirus Data | API | CDC Open Data | link | 24h | 90% | US NNDSS weekly hantavirus case counts via Socrata open data portal. Includes HPS and non-HPS breakdown. |
| ecdc | ECDC CDTR Weekly Reports | ECDC Public Data | link | 24h | 75% | European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control weekly threats report. Covers hantavirus and other outbreaks in EU/EEA. | |
| intel | Inference Engine | NLP | Internal | link | 3h | 60% | Regex-based case count inference from narrative news text. Extracts cases/deaths/CFR from unstructured reports. |
Telemetry
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