Ebola virus: 5 things you need to know about 'the worst outbreak in human history'

1. Ebola kills up to 90 per cent of those who fall ill. It generally results in organ failure.
2. Although it is likely to spread to other parts of the world outside Africa, National Geographic reports the virus is 'unlikely to spread widely in regions with well-funded hospitals and standard infection-control procedures'. Simple gloves and gowns and cleanliness procedures will help.
3. It is not highly transmissible
4. There are no treatments for Ebola.
5. People can recover - but it's not common

According to the World Health Organisation the virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. Fruit bats are considered to be the natural hosts.

The virus first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks in Sudan the Democratic Republic of Congo. Some 280 of the 318 people who contracted is in the Democratic Republic of Congo died. In Sudan, 53 per cent of people died.