Question: Is it possible to find out how long Ebola has existed for?

Verity Hill answered on 5 Nov 2018:

Yes!

The first outbreak of Ebola was recorded in 1976 in the country that is now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is in central Africa. That first outbreak was mostly centred around a hospital run by nuns, who were re-using needles between patients (this was before we knew about things like HIV and Hepatitis C which are spread through shared needles, and so needle re-use was more common). Because Ebola lives in your blood, shared needles is a very quick way to spread it around!

But it’s worth saying that Ebola might have been around in humans before it was first recognised as a disease in its own right. Most of the time the symptoms are actually quite similar to the flu, or like malaria which most people living in that part of the world would expect to experience at some point.
At the moment, we don’t know if 1976 was really the first time Ebola was found in humans, but if we can find where it lives when it’s not causing illness in humans (we think a fruit bat? But it’s not been proved) then we can get some clues!