The global Ebola pandemic, initially known as the West African Ebola outbreak, was an event of the early twenty-first century that resulted in millions of deaths worldwide. The Ebola virus, one of the deadliest viruses to humans, broke out several times in the late twentieth century, before a major outbreak occurred in 2014. It began in West Africa, in the small coastal country of Guinea, and spread to neighboring states. From there, travelers spread Ebola to other continents. By early 2015, Europe, the Americas, and Asia had many cases of Ebola.