Color enhanced Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM) of the Ebola virus. The virus was named after a river in the Democratid Republic of the Congo where it was first discovered in 1976. It is an RNA virus (of the family Filoviridae) known to cause the often fatal disease Ebola hemorragic fever (Ebola HF) in primates. Ebola virus (EBOV, formerly designated Zaire ebolavirus) is one of five known viruses within the genus Ebolavirus. Four of the five known ebolaviruses, including EBOV, cause a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans and other mammals, known as Ebola virus disease (EVD). Ebola virus has caused the majority of human deaths from EVD, and is the cause of the 2013-15 Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, which has resulted in at least 28,616 suspected cases and 11,310 confirmed deaths. Magnification: unknown.