--- title: Ebola Outbreak Likely Started With One Person description: Findings from new genetic analysis canonical: https://time.com/3210470/ebola-outbreak-likely-started-with-one-person/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-28T20:14:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:55:18.170Z article:section: Health og:title: Ebola Outbreak Likely Started With One Person og:description: Findings from new genetic analysis og:url: https://time.com/3210470/ebola-outbreak-likely-started-with-one-person/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5ff7b291f266b550/6986a16235ba6f4802c0399e/ebola-outbreak1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3208 og:image:height: 1805 og:image:alt: Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ebola Outbreak Likely Started With One Person twitter:description: Findings from new genetic analysis twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5ff7b291f266b550/6986a16235ba6f4802c0399e/ebola-outbreak1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ebola Outbreak Likely Started With One Person > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=1c726567-6422-4376-9c09-ac4bea9c86bd&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Aug 28, 2014 8:14 PM UTC  A young volunteer wears special uniform to sterilize the bodies of people, died due to the Ebola virus, ahead of their burials in Kptema graveyard in Kenema, Sierra Leone on August 24, 2014\. People work for 6 dollars per a day in burial and sterilizing works in Kenema where the infection of the virus is mostly seen. A young volunteer wears special uniform to sterilize the bodies of people, died due to the Ebola virus, ahead of their burials in Kptema graveyard in Kenema, Sierra Leone on August 24, 2014\. People work for 6 dollars per a day in burial and sterilizing works in Kenema where the infection of the virus is mostly seen. Mohammed Elshamy—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Aug 28, 2014 8:14 PM UTC The Ebola virus outbreak that’s ravaging West Africa probably started with a single infected person, a new genetic analysis shows. This West African variant can be traced genetically to a single introduction, perhaps a person infected by a bat, researchers report in the journal _Science_. Their study paints a remarkably detailed picture of how the virus spread from Guinea to Sierra Leone and Liberia in an outbreak that’s taken the lives of more than 1,500 people — including five of the researchers who worked on the report. One thing is clear — it is definitely being spread by people, not by animals repeatedly infecting people, the researchers say. [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/where-did-ebola-come-likely-one-person-gene-study-finds-n191161?cid=par-time-article%5F20140828) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3210470/ebola-outbreak-likely-started-with-one-person/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3210470/ebola-outbreak-likely-started-with-one-person/"},"headline":"Ebola Outbreak Likely Started With One Person","datePublished":"2014-08-28T20:14:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:55:18.170Z","description":"Findings from new genetic analysis","url":"https://time.com/3210470/ebola-outbreak-likely-started-with-one-person/","keywords":["Infectious Disease"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5ff7b291f266b550/6986a16235ba6f4802c0399e/ebola-outbreak1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5ff7b291f266b550/6986a16235ba6f4802c0399e/ebola-outbreak1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone","caption":"Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone","creditText":"Mohammed Elshamy—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3210470/ebola-outbreak-likely-started-with-one-person/","name":"Ebola Outbreak Likely Started With One Person"}}]}] ```