Congo River and "Congo" is the preferred English name in 19th-century literature, although references to "Zahir" or "Zaire" as the name used by the inhabitants remained common. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo are named after it, as was the previous Republic of the Congo which had gained independence in 1960 from the Belgian Congo. The Republic of Zaire during 1971–1997 was also named after the river, after its name in French and Portuguese. The Congo's drainage basin covers , an area larger than India. The Congo's discharge at its mouth ranges from , with an
Zaire ebolavirus became extinct. As the number of susceptible hosts declines, so does the effective population size and its genetic diversity. This genetic bottleneck effect has implications for the species' ability to cause Ebola virus disease in human hosts. "Zaire ebolavirus -"Makona variant caused the 2014 West Africa outbreak. The outbreak was characterized by the longest instance of human-to-human transmission of the viral species. Pressures to adapt to the human host were seen at this time, however, there were no phenotypic changes in the virus (such as increased transmission, increased immune evasion by the virus) were seen. Zaire ebolavirus The species Zaire