Researchers believe that the index case was a two-year-old boy who lived in the village of Meliandou, Guéckédou located in the Nzérékoré Region of Guinea.
Although Ebola represents a major public health issue in sub-Saharan Africa, no cases had ever been reported in West Africa and the early cases were diagnosed as other diseases more common to the area such as Lassa fever, another hemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola.