Starting from the first confirmed case, that death toll was reached almost three times faster than in the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak, the worst on record. The current outbreak was declared on May 15 but health authorities say sequencing showed it began months earlier, in February. It’s already the second-largest outbreak in history, only behind the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak that recorded more than 28,000 cases including over 11,000 deaths. The Ebola outbreak is unlike most previous ones because the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for it has no approved vaccines or treatments. THE FIRST Ebola virus to be identified was in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now Congo.