Ebola remains an ongoing challenge for people and authorities in affected regions. Vaccine development could help lessen the burden.

Most often, Ebola outbreaks have been caused by the Zaire type of the Ebola virus (Zaire ebolavirus) and the Sudan type (Sudan ebolavirus).

During the most recent outbreaks, which have had high numbers of infected people, researchers have used these live situations to test vaccines in development.

The largest Ebola outbreak came four decades after the disease was originally identified.

Between 2014 and 2016, Ebola spread from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Central Africa to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone in the west of the continent. There were more than 28,600 infections and 10,000 deaths.

From 2018 to 2020, Ebola spread again from the DRC to Uganda. There have been further outbreaks in Gabon, South Africa,

© Deutsche Welle