Ebola Home > Ebola Pictures
This article contains a series of Ebola pictures. Ebola is an illness that is often fatal in humans and nonhuman primates. The pictures in this article include images of people who have Ebola, the healthcare providers who are treating them, and pictures of magnified images of the virus that causes the disease.
Ebola hemorrhagic fever (also called just Ebola) is a highly contagious illness that is often fatal in humans and nonhuman primates (monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees). Outbreaks have appeared sporadically since the virus was first recognized in 1976.
The cause of Ebola is an infection with the Ebola virus. The virus got its name from a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) in Africa, where it was first recognized.
Ebola virus is one of two members of a family of RNA viruses called Filoviridae. There are four identified subtypes, three of which have caused disease in humans:
- Ebola-Ivory Coast.
The fourth subtype, Ebola-Reston, has caused disease in nonhuman primates, but not in humans.
(Click Causes of Ebola for more information on the virus.)
Ebola Picture No. 1
This picture shows an electron micrograph of a thin section containing the Ebola virus. Given the date, this virus isolate (spore) was probably obtained during the outbreak that occurred in Zaire in 1976, which was the first recognized outbreak. The image shows an intracytoplasmic inclusion of Ebola virus nucleocapsids (structure).
Ebola Picture No. 2
This scanning electron micrograph (SEM) shows a number of Ebola virions (viral particles).