How Ebola Outbreak Started

According to the The New England Journal of Medicine, this year's Ebola outbreak possibly started with a 2-year-old boy from Guinea.

Researchers have said that the young boy is likely to have caught the virus in early December after which he died.

The toddler was an indigene of Guéckédou, a village which is near the borders of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, all of whom have been massively hit by the disease.

After the boy died, his sister, mother and grandmother followed in quick succession. All four of the victims had fever, vomiting and diarrhea but no one knew they had the Ebola virus.

The virus was subsequently spread by two guests who attended the grandmother's funeral and then by a health worker and a doctor who also got infected.

It is not yet clear how the youngster caught the disease but it is suspected that he came in contact with contaminated fruit or an injection with a contaminated needle

The disease has killed almost a 1000 people since it broke out with Liberia and Sierra Leone declaring states of emergency and the World Health Organization declaring the crisis an "extraordinary event".