Ebola: Who is patient zero? Disease traced back to 2-year-old in Guinea

Virtually no one knew the 2-year-old by name. Now the world knows him as patient zero.

Researchers from The New England Journal of Medicine say they believe Emile was the first person to contract the disease in the current outbreak almost a year ago.

It’s not clear exactly how the boy, who lived in a rainforest village in southern Guinea, got infected.

Ebola can be spread from animals to humans through infected fluids or tissue.

“In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines,” according to the World Health Organization.

In Meliandou, many of the villagers earned their livelihood selling rice, corn or bananas to nearby towns and cities.

“Nobody wants to buy our products,” Amadou Kamano, the village chief, told UNICEF.

Residents, out of fear, also burned their mattresses and other possessions.

“People burned everything,” Kamano said. “Now we are even poorer than we were before.”

CNN’s Madison Park and Lynda Kinkade contributed to this report.

CNN