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Patient Zero
Researchers believe the first Ebola patient in the current outbreak may be a 2-year-old child in Guéckédou, Guinea. The child spread the disease to their family in December 2013, and then to a health worker who carried the virus to other villages. -
Ebola Spreads Quickly in Guinea
Health workers worry about the spread of Ebola in Guinea’s capital Conakry. At least 59 out of 80 people who contracted the disease in West Africa have died. -
Ebola Spreads From Guinea to Liberia and Sierra Leone
Cases of Ebola appear in Liberia and Sierra Leone from people who had traveled to Guinea. The outbreak's epicenter is at the intersection of the three countries' shared borders. -
Guinea Believes the Outbreak is Under Control
Guinea’s Ministry of Health says it belives that deaths from Ebola have slowed, and there are fewer new cases of the virus. But it will soon come back in another, even larger wave of infections and death. -
Doctors Without Borders: "Ebola is Out of Control"
Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) asks for more international aid, saying the outbreak is out of control and they can no longer keep up with the spread. -
First Case Reaches Nigeria
A Liberian-American man named Patrick Sawyer collapses at an airport in Lagos, Nigeria after flying in from Liberia. He was on his way home to Minnesota. Sawyer dies in Nigeria, as do a couple of health care workers who treated him. There are 520 cases and 330 deaths of Ebola in West Africa at this time. -
Desperation Heightens
In Liberia, one of the country's prominent doctors gets infected, as do two American missionaries: Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol. Liberia closes its borders, and Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma declares the outbreak a public health emergency saying: "Fellow citizens, this is a national fight, and it behoves all of us to stand together to promote the truth about this deadly disease." -
First U.S. Ebola Patient Arrives in U.S. for Treatment
Dr. Kent Brantly, a missionary doctor from Samaritan's Purse, is evacuated from Liberia to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment in the hospital's isolation unit. The hospital has prepped 12 years for this possibility. MORE: Doctors Inside Emory’s Ebola Unit Speak Out -
Second U.S. Ebola Patient Arrives in the U.S.
Nancy Writebol, a missionary for SIM USA, arrives at Emory University Hospital to be treated by the same team of doctors. On the same day, British Airways cancels its flights to West Africa. -
CDC Activates its Emergency Operations Center
The CDC activates it's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to the Level 1 Response, the highest, and announces a surge of disease specialists going into West Africa. TIME gets an inside look of the EOC. On the same day, Sierra Leone dispatches troops to enforce quarantines. -
WHO Declares Outbreak a Global Health Emergency
The day after the U.S. State Dept. issues a travel warning for West Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declares the outbreak a global health emergency. There are 1,711 cases and 932 deaths at this point. -
WHO Endorses Experimental Drug Use
The WHO says experimental drugs can be used in the outbreak after global curiosity piques over ZMapp, a drug given to the American Ebola patients, among others. None of the drugs or vaccines in development have been tested on humans, which is why countries are told to proceed with caution. MORE: Who Gets the Experimental Ebola Drugs? -
More Than 1,000 People Die
The WHO reports that 1,069 of the 1,975 people infected with Ebola have died. -
Affected Countries Offically Start Screening Travelers
WHO says Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria should conduct exit screenings of travelers in order to contain the virus. -
Doctors Without Borders Open New Ward; Liberia on Lockdown
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf declares a curfew for a Monrovia slum; restriciting movement from 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Doctors Without Borders opens a new 120-bed ward to accept overflow patients who coudln't be admitted to other isolation centers. -
Americans Are Released From Emory
Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol survive Ebola and are dispatched from the hospital. Doctors Without Borders president Dr. Joanne Liu writes an op-ed in TIME, pleading for more help in West Africa. -
Ebola Hits the DRC
Two people die of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. -
Ebola Vaccines Head to Human Trials
Several simultaneous human trials of Ebola vaccines are kicked off as WHO says 20,0000 cases of Ebola is not an unreasonable possibility. -
Senegal Reports Its First Ebola Patient
Health experts worry about spread in Senegal, which serves as a hub for transportation and business. -
Third Ebola Patient Arrives in U.S.; Survivor Recounts The Disease
Dr. Richard A Sacra, a missionary doctor for SIM USA infected with Ebola, arrives in Omaha for treatment. Dr. Kent Brantly writes about his experience surviving Ebola for TIME.
