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According to the old Ebola virus classification, the Ebola virus was considered a species of the Filovirus genus. In 1998 at the proposal of the Vertebrate Virus Subcommittee in the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, the Ebolavirus along with the Marburg virus were classified in the Filioviridae family, representing two specific genera which are Ebola-like viruses and Marburg-like viruses. Today, in the official classification these two types of viruses are called Ebolavirus and Margburgvirus. The classification of the Ebolavirus includes different subtypes such as Zaire virus, Sudan ebolavirus, Reston ebolavirus, Cote d’Ivoire ebolavirus and the Bundibugyo ebolavirus.

The Zaire virus (also known as ZEBOV or Zaire Ebolavirus) is the virus with the highest fatality rate of up to 90%. The first outbreak of Zaire virus occurred in Yambuku in 1976 and this particular specie of viruses had more outbreaks than any other Ebolavirus species. The symptoms of the infection with Zaire virus are alike the symptoms of malaria so the patients were treated with quinine. It is believed that the virus was transmitted from an unsterilized needle used for an injection. The Sudan Ebolavirus (or SEBOV) is a specie of Ebola that spread from a worker in a cotton factory from Sudan. The scientists still do not know who the carrier was since all the animals and insects tested negative for the virus. The virus has an average rate of fatality situated between 50% and 60%. The Reston Ebolavirus or the REBOV was firstly discovered in the late 1980s during an outbreak of simian hemorrhagic fever virus in Reston, Virginia. The virus spread to the Philippines, Italy, Texas and it was also transferred to pigs in the Philippines. This virus does not affect humans, even if it is considered a level 4 organism but it is dangerous to monkeys. The first case was discovered in a crab-eating macaque in Covance Laboratories. Cote d’Ivoire Ebolavirus, also known as Ivory Coast Ebolavirus or Tai Ebolavirus was firstly discovered in 1994 among chimpanzees from the Tai Forest, Cote d’Ivoire, Africa. The virus was proved to be transmissible to humans after one of the scientists performing tests on the dead monkeys contracted it. She experienced symptoms similar to the dengue fever but after hospitalization she fully recovered within six weeks. Bundibugyo virus caused an outbreak in the district with the same name of Uganda in 2007. This is the most recently discovered type of Ebola and it has an average fatality rate up to 25%.

The most common Ebola virus symptoms are fever, muscle pain, headache and the inflammation of the pharynx but if the disease evolves vomiting and bloody diarrhea may occur. However, the symptoms may be different depending on the type of virus in the Ebola virus classification.