<Tr> <Th> Deaths </Th> <Td> 3,955 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Confirmed cases </Th> <Td> 14,061 (as of 25 October 2015) </Td> </Tr> <P> An Ebola virus epidemic in Sierra Leone occurred in 2014, along with the neighbouring countries of Guinea and Liberia . On March 18, 2014 Guinean health officials announce the outbreak of a mysterious hemorrhagic fever "which strikes like lightning ." It was identified as Ebola virus disease and spread to Sierra Leone by May 2014 . The disease is thought to have originated when a child in a bat - hunting family contracted the disease in Guinea in December 2013 . Consumption of African bushmeat, including rats, bats, and monkeys, is commonplace in Sierra Leone and West Africa in general . </P> <P> At the time it was discovered, it was thought that Ebola virus is not endemic to Sierra Leone or to the West Africa region and this epidemic represents the first time the virus has been discovered there . However, some samples taken for Lassa fever testing turned out to be Ebola virus disease when re-tested for Ebola in 2014, showing that Ebola had been in Sierra Leone as early as 2006 . </P>

When did ebola break out in sierra leone