Ebola is believed to be spread over long distances by bats, which can host the virus without dying, as it infects other animals it shares trees with such as monkeys. It often spreads to humans via infected bushmeat.
At least 17 people have died in an area of northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo where health officials have now confirmed an outbreak of Ebola.
It is the ninth time Ebola has been recorded in the central African nation, whose eastern Ebola river gave the deadly virus its name when it was discovered there in the 1970s.
An Ebola outbreak in northern Equateur province in 2014 killed 49 people. The cases were unrelated to the epidemic in West Africa that year in which more than 11,000 people died.
Ebola was first discovered in 1976. The virus can be contracted by humans through contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals.
The viral disease, which has no known cure or vaccine, was first reported in 1976 in Congo and takes its name from a river in the east of the country.
The worst Ebola epidemic in history ended in West Africa just two years ago after killing more than 11,300 people.
The virus can cause multiple organ failures and is passed from human-to-human through mouth, nose or broken skin with blood or other bodily fluids of those infected.
Symptoms of Ebola include fever, muscle pain, and fatigue followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rashes and bleeding (both internal and external) in the gums, eyes, nasal passages and feces.
