Home / Health / Ebola's First Glimpse: A 1976 Belgian Lab Discovery
Ebola's First Glimpse: A 1976 Belgian Lab Discovery
12 Oct
Summary
- Dr. Peter Piot identified the Ebola virus in Belgium in 1976.
- Blood samples arrived in a broken flask from Zaire, now DR Congo.
- The virus was named Ebola after a nearby river in the outbreak region.
In the autumn of 1976, a critical moment in medical history occurred when a damaged flask containing blood samples arrived at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium. The sample originated from a Flemish nun who had succumbed to a mysterious illness in Yambuku, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).
Dr. Peter Piot, then a 27-year-old researcher, was assigned the task of determining if the woman had died from yellow fever. This significant identification of the Ebola virus was a collaborative effort, involving Congolese doctor Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, who collected the samples, and several other scientists in both Belgium and Zaire.
Exactly 50 years ago on Sunday, Dr. Piot and his colleagues became the first to visually identify the virus, a large, spindly pathogen. They named it Ebola, referencing a nearby river where the outbreak began. Over the years, various forms of Ebola have emerged, collectively responsible for tens of thousands of fatalities.
