Genetic analyses indicate that there are at least four distinguishable subtypes of Ebola virus: Ebola Zaire, Sudan, Reston and Cote d’ Ivoire. Between June 1976 and July 1996 approximately 1,500 cases with a little over 1,000 deaths have been documented since the virus was discovered. This is excluding the most recent incident in the Autumn of 2000 when an outbreak occurred in northern Uganda (1).

The effects of Ebola on the human body are so terrifying they seem like a scene o

The last hypothesis is that the Ebola virus could have potentially originated is from plants. Ebola is extremely pathogenic in vertebrates and kills them very quickly as if it had not found the host it was looking for. The virus does not allow a long growth period suggesting that a non-vertebrate could be a natural host. Primates, when infected, do not show signs of any kind of immune response to Ebola. This is a significant indication that Ebola did not evolve with vertebrates. Plants have become likely candidates for the reservoir, resulting from the searches that have been conducted throughout the years. Nevertheless, scientists are still having great difficulty in finding where the virus has evolved from (Waterman, 1). Many Ebola outbreaks have occurred in the rainy season in Africa. There is a possibility that it coincides with a particular flowering or fruiting cycle of a specific species of plant (Monath, 10). With this comes another fact that there are many different animals ranging from arthropods to primates that use the forest as a primary food source. Some of these species, such as the chimpanzee is known to be more active during this season and therefore is more likely to try an alternative new plant for food consumption. This also goes along with the fact that the Ebola virus was found in guinea pigs which are vegetarian animals in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

During the outbreaks of Ebola virus, most cases resulted from human to human contact. This means that a natural reservoir could possibly be anything and anywhere. This provides no information about the natural transmission cycle, and when scientists finally decided to look for a possible candidate for an origin, they were left with many dilemmas. The first problem was the timing. The initial outbreak began in January during the rainy season, but because of the delay in recognition of the virus, it was not until months later that a specimen was collected or any research was done. This might leave open the possibility that the actual natural host will never be found and all the other viruses that have occurred had been variations or mutant strains from the original. Even though small terrestrial animals have shown signs of antibodies and virus particles, the small animal’s immune response may vary to that of primates. This would cause a different response to the viral infection. actual live virus has yet to be detected. This is also true in the case of bats. Likewise, the reason why bats may not have shown antibodies and an immune response is because there is a possibility that these infected bats could have already died. Arthropods, although well known vectors to other various viruses, are not likely t

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