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The virus, for which there was no known vaccine or cure, gave rise to "haemorrhagic fever", causing vomiting, diarrhoea and internal and external bleeding, and was transmitted through body fluids. It was named after the Ebola area of ZaVOL41re where it was first discovered in an outbreak occurring in 1976, when there was also an outbreak in the western equatorial region of Sudan; a second outbreak occurred in the same area of Sudan in 1979. The latest outbreak was thought to have started after a laboratory technician at the hospital in Kikwit became infected by unknown means in March. Before the cause of his illness and subsequent death had been identified, he had infected a number of other medical staff who had in turn passed the infection on to patients.  

By May 17 Kikwit, a town with a population of around 1,000,000, had been sealed off in an effort to stop the disease spreading. However, by then several infected people had already left the town, including three Italian nuns who later died in Italy. Quarantine efforts were also compromised by the large number of Western journalists who descended briefly on Kikwit to report on the situation.

By May 26 WHO said that the acute phase of the epidemic was over and that transmission had been greatly reduced; only six new cases had been reported since May 18, but additional cases were expected because of the length of the incubation period. WHO reported that of the 160 cases 138 had been in Kikwit and 14 in Mosango, with the rest spread over five other towns in Bandundu Province; the 121 deaths represented a 76 per cent death rate.

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