Color enhanced Transmission Electron Micrograph of the Ebola virus, a filovirus which causes of Ebola fever. Since 1976, two major outbreaks of this often fatal viral hemorrhagic fever have occurred in equatorial Africa. Symptoms include high fever, diarrhea, hemorrhages and skin rash. Ebola fever can be contracted by handling material from infected monkeys, which carry the disease, or through direct contact with the blood or other body fluids of infected patients. There is no true cure for the disease, but victims may recover if supportive therapy is given.