Ebola virus in West Africa: new conquered territories and new risks—or how I learned to stop worrying and (not) love Ebola virus

•Ebola virus has emerged for the first time in West Africa in early 2014.•The virus has rapidly spread to neighboring countries, becoming out of control.•The area of viral circulation has dramatically widened, leading to new risks.•International public health and security concerns result from this outbreak.•The whole tropical belt from Africa is now at risk for filovirus disease.

After being restricted to Central Africa for 35 years, the Ebola virus has suddenly emerged in Guinea in early 2014. The virus rapidly spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone and was imported to Nigeria, Senegal, Mali and even USA. The main features of this outbreak are a relentless dissemination among several countries, a dramatic number of cases including health-care workers and an inability to control the outbreak which grows exponentially. This conquest of new territories by Ebola virus implies that new risks have now to be taken into account. Filoviruses have been promoted from the status of neglected diseases to that of international public health and security concerns and we now have to live with that threat. A vaccine is probably the only efficient approach to avoid future re-emergence.