Guinea

Researchers working in Guinea have developed an experimental Ebola vaccine that they say is highly effective. But it has been a long time coming, and groups like the World Health Organization have admitted the need for emergency response reform before another crisis strikes.

Missteps dogged the early days of the Ebola response, with international groups relying on an untested government to combat the epidemic. “Letting the countries take the lead” is standard operating procedure for health agencies operating abroad.

The US responded to Ebola quickly, and succeeded in stamping out the small number of known cases. Now that the last Ebola patient in the country has been cleared, one doctor says it’s time to refocus on West Africa.

British chemist Anthony England was at home with plenty of time on his hands during the Ebola outbreak, reading the ongoing coverage and reactions. But the errors he found online infuriated him, leading him to make a satirical Ebola map that’s gone viral around the world.

Scientists are still trying to figure out when and how the Ebola virus first emerged in humans. Many believe that fruit bats are the so-called “reservoir hosts,” but that remains to be definitively proven. Science writer David Quammen ventured deep into the forest of central Africa to try to find out for his latest book “Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus.”