Comparisons between bubonic plague, a bacterial disease carried by fleas, and ebola, transmitted by a virus carried in bodily fluids, are tenuous.

Ebola is believed to be reservoired in fruit bats; fluids from the bats on fruit are capable of transmitting the virus; moreover the virus affects many animals, including other primates, antelopes, porcupines, rodents, dogs, pigs and other animals.

Eating "bush meat" can transmit fluids containing the virus. Some cultures eat fruit bats (Guinea has banned consumption).

It is possible that birds harbored the virus in the past, and this may be so today (David Sanders, Purdue University). The virus enters human cells in much the same way that similar viruses enter bird cells.

Thomas Monath, Harvard University School of Public Health, has suggested that the virus may be a mutation from a non-pathogenic one from insects, and that this might be the source of the infection in bats. The disease was first detected in Central Africa in 1976.

There may be other theories.

The potential for the use of the virus in bioterrorism worries defense experts.

"Ebola's deadly Jump from Animal to Animal," Discovery News, Jul. 30, 2014.

With a physician in the family, interested in the outbreak, I try to keep up with reports, accounting for my repeated posts.