Authenticité (Zaire) banned all outside Christian religious groups, requiring those who would function in Zaire to become part of one of four recognized umbrella groups. The four were: the Kimbanguist Church (a syncretic church of Zairian origin), the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches, and "Les Églises du Christ au Zaire" (ECZ, now Church of Christ in Congo), which covered most of the Protestant confessions. All others were declared illegal. The various Protestant churches had to affiliate with the last of these as communities within the ECZ in Zaire. At the time there were numerous local sects and church groups which had sprung
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