Ebola
Photographs | Oral Histories | Documents | Other Media
The 2014-16 West African Ebola epidemic infected more than 28,600 people, directly taking an estimated 11,320 lives and leading to countless other deaths as it shut down healthcare systems in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. It was the first true epidemic of Ebola, affecting more people than all previous outbreaks combined and spreading across three continents. Reducing cases to zero took an enormous international effort.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) served a crucial role in the international response to the epidemic. The bulk of this historical collection pertains to that response, with oral history interviews of CDC responders from a wide variety of fields. CDC was involved in fighting Ebola from its first identification in 1976, and the collection also contains documents and interviews pertaining to these earlier responses.