Ebola originated in 1976 in two separate, simultaneous outbreaks in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The virus is a hemorrhagic fever virus, which affects the way that your blood clots and leads to organ failure and internal bleeding. It is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of somehow who is sick with or has died from the virus. Historically, only two cases of Ebola have originated in the United States, and no cases have been diagnosed in the United States since 2014.

Read more at the Johns Hopkins Medicine Website.