Global surveillance relies on a process of early detection and validation of international public health alerts. This surveillance system, established at the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance in 2003, has made it possible to detect and document the Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa in real time since March 2014. As of December 3, 2014, the global toll of this epidemic—unprecedented in its scale and geographic spread, and declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization in August 2014—stood at 17,145 reported cases and 6,070 deaths across eight countries, including two outside of Africa. Under the auspices of the United Nations, an Ebola response plan was launched in September 2014 to control the outbreak.