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Witness History: First reports of Ebola

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First reports of Ebola

27/06/2023 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, First reports of Ebola

Ebola's first documented outbreak emerged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976

About 300 people died in the first documented outbreak of Ebola virus that occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then known as Zaire, in 1976.

In 1976 in a small Belgian missionary hospital in a village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then known as Zaire, people were dying from an unknown disease which caused a high temperature and vomiting. 

It was the first documented outbreak of Ebola the virus.

About 300 people died. 

Dr Jean Jacques Mueyembe and Dr David Heymann worked to bring the outbreak under control. 

Claire Bowes spoke to them in this programme first broadcast in 2009.

(Photo: Residents who were being examined during the Ebola outbreak in Zaire in 1976. Credit: Public domain/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

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