In each case, the outbreak involved contact with a dead chimpanzee. The outbreak in the Boue area also involved contact with a dead chimpanzee. The index case involved a hunter who lived in a forest camp. A dead chimpanzee was found in the forest where the hunter had been. Although chimpanzees are linked to these two outbreaks as well as a case of Ebola virus infection in Ivory Coast, the mystery as to the reservoir of Ebola virus is unlikely to be solved.
Chimpanzees appear to suffer from a disease similar to humans and die from the virus.
A reservoir would presumably carry the virus with out harm to itself. The case of Ebola in the Ivory Coast involved a Swiss scientist contracted the disease after dissecting a chimpanzee .