Where is Ebola Hiding Now?

There was a certain kind of quiet hopefulness when, in late April this year, the last Ebola patient of the West African epidemic -- a two-year-old boy -- walked out of a treatment facility in Monrovia, Liberia. With the smoldering embers of the outbreak fading, there was cause for celebration. But there remains the impotent fear of the unseen: Ebola is still out there, lurking. We just don't know where it's hiding or when it will be back.

And if we're going to stop Ebola in the future, we have to find its hiding places.

Ebola is a zoonotic disease, meaning that it can spread between animals and humans. It burns hot and fast through people. Its ruthless nature means that we are often the end of the line for the virus: a host like us that gets too sick too fast, that dies too quickly, cuts down the virus's ability to jump into a fresh body. To remain a threat, Ebola needs a safe house in which to lie low and hide. 

Such a long-term host, the quiet refuge of a pathogen, is known as a reservoir species. If a reservoir species is Ebola's safe house, we are its luxury retirement property, a place for it to live out its last days with a bang. The trouble is that we aren't sure where the safe house is. If we are going to be vigilant against Ebola's re-emergence, we need to find it.
To find where Ebola is currently hiding, get the details of this report here on CNN.