Research, Evidence Generation and Capacity Building
This knowledge hub has been set up to support locally led research, evidence generation and capacity strengthening during the current Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak.
It is designed for frontline health workers, community engagement practitioners, researchers, laboratories, clinicians, public health teams, ethics and data teams and partners working to support the response. The hub brings together practical tools, training resources, protocols, guidance and opportunities for collaboration so that evidence generation can be embedded within the response from the outset.
The current outbreak has been declared by WHO as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. WHO has confirmed that the outbreak is caused by Bundibugyo virus and has noted that there are currently no approved Bundibugyo virus-specific vaccines or therapeutics. For the latest situation updates, please refer to WHO Disease Outbreak News.
Outbreaks such as this require rapid, coordinated and locally led research to answer urgent questions, generate evidence to guide action, and ensure that knowledge and capacity are strengthened where they are needed most.
The hub aim is to provide practical tools, training, guidance and opportunities for collaboration so that research can be embedded within the response from the outset and conducted in a way that delivers immediate and lasting benefit to affected communities. This hub is designed to support evidence generation and capacity strengthening in ways that complement and help implement recommendations from WHO, Africa CDC and national public health authorities.
Urgent attention needed:
3 Priority Areas for Research and Evidence Generation
Based on priorities identified by the World Health Organization and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, three areas require urgent attention. These areas highlight where locally led research, practical evidence generation and capacity strengthening can support the current Bundibugyo virus disease response. They are intended to help researchers, laboratories, clinicians, public health teams, community engagement practitioners and partners identify urgent evidence needs, share learning, access tools and connect with collaborators.
1. Community engagement and public health interventions
+ Why this matters now
Effective response depends on trust and meaningful partnership with affected communities.
Effective response depends on trust, meaningful partnership with affected communities and locally grounded public health interventions. Community engagement is essential for early reporting, contact tracing, isolation, safe care, safe and dignified burials, and acceptance of public health measures.
In the current Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak, knowledge sharing and local contextual understanding are urgently needed to identify how best to communicate risk, address concerns and support communities to adopt measures that reduce transmission while respecting local contexts and priorities. This includes understanding knowledge, attitudes and practices related to symptoms, caregiving, funerals, health-seeking, isolation, contact tracing, response teams and movement between communities.
In previous Ebola responses, trust, local leadership, listening to communities and adapting communication to local realities have been central to improving response effectiveness. The current outbreak is occurring in a context where health systems are already under pressure, population movement is high and communities may be facing multiple concurrent risks. These factors make community engagement, social science studies and locally grounded public health interventions especially important.
+ Key evidence questions
What do affected and at-risk communities know and believe about Bundibugyo virus disease
What concerns, rumours or misinformation are shaping care-seeking, contact tracing, isolation, burial practices or response uptake
Which trusted people, networks or institutions can support effective communication and engagement?
What practices linked to caregiving, funerals, movement or health-seeking may increase or reduce transmission risk?
How can public health measures be adapted to local realities while maintaining safety and effectiveness?
What lessons from previous Ebola responses and current mpox response efforts can inform community engagement in this outbreak?
What practical tools are needed to support rapid KAP/social science studies and community feedback mechanisms?
+ Sharing learning and connect
Community engagement practitioners, social scientists, researchers, public health teams, local partners and response teams are encouraged to share planned or ongoing work related to KAP studies, community perceptions, risk communication, misinformation, safe burials, care-seeking or public health interventions.
This space can support teams to identify collaborators, adapt community engagement tools, share locally generated learning and connect with others working on similar questions. Contributions may include study ideas, protocols, community feedback approaches, learning from the field, or requests for technical support.
+ Learning resources
Explore useful resources for community engagement, social science, research readiness, and ethical study implementation.
Strong fit for capacity strengthening. It includes epidemic control and RCCE training materials for volunteers and includes content on qualitative community feedback mechanisms used during the Ebola response in DRC
Provides practical guidance for designing and implementing citizen-led ethnographic research during outbreak response. It is useful for social scientists, community engagement practitioners and response teams seeking to generate community-level insights to inform preparedness, risk communication and public health interventions.
Reviews social science lessons from past Ebola epidemics and identifies entry points for emergency interventions and preparedness. Useful for community engagement practitioners, social scientists and response teams seeking to understand social, political, economic and cultural factors that shape outbreak response.
2. Laboratories, diagnostics, and surveillance
+ Why this matters now
Rapid identification and monitoring of cases are central to controlling the outbreak.
This requires strong laboratory systems, reliable diagnostic pathways and coordinated surveillance. Research and operational work are needed to assess diagnostic performance, strengthen sample handling and testing processes, and connect laboratory, surveillance and data science capacity across institutions and countries.
Africa CDC has called for urgent regional coordination following the outbreak in Ituri Province, DRC, and an imported Bundibugyo virus disease case reported by Uganda. Africa CDC highlighted the need to align laboratory information, contact management and cross-border risk assessment, reinforcing the importance of coordinated laboratory, surveillance and data systems (Ref).
Capacity strengthening is needed across the full diagnostic and surveillance pathway. This includes recognition of suspected cases, use of case definitions, safe sample collection, packaging, transport, biosafety, testing, sequencing, result communication, contact tracing and data management. WHO’s 2024 interim guidance on diagnostic testing for Ebola and Marburg virus diseases provides operational recommendations for laboratory personnel, clinicians, health workers, public health officials and other stakeholders involved in diagnosis and care (Ref).
+ Key evidence questions
Where do delays occur between symptom onset, care-seeking, alert, sample collection, testing and result communication?
What practical barriers affect sample referral, biosafety, testing and sequencing?
How are laboratory results linked to surveillance, contact tracing and public health decision-making?
What data systems are being used to collect, manage, analyse and share outbreak information?
How can surveillance systems better capture movement, contacts and cross-border risks?
What laboratory, diagnostic, surveillance or data capacity gaps require urgent support?
How can local laboratories and surveillance teams generate and use data safely and effectively?
+ Sharing learning and connect
Laboratory teams, surveillance officers, data managers, clinicians, public health teams and researchers are encouraged to share tools, protocols, data systems, diagnostic studies or operational learning related to testing, sample referral, surveillance, sequencing, contact tracing and cross-border preparedness.
This space can support technical exchange, identify gaps and connect teams working on related diagnostic, surveillance and data challenges.
+ Learning resources
Explore related resources for laboratory, diagnostics, sample-linked research, surveillance, preparedness, IPC and practical learning.
Laboratories, diagnostics, and surveillance resources
Useful for surveillance and research teams collecting, managing and using outbreak data. It is aimed at early-career researchers, postgraduate students and clinical research support staff collecting, managing and using health data
Potentially useful for mapping access to care, referral pathways, outbreak service coverage, or cross-border preparedness. The course equips learners with basic knowledge and techniques to quantify geographical/spatial access to care
Useful for outbreak surveillance and laboratory-linked research where data sharing may need to happen quickly across teams, institutions or countries, while protecting confidentiality and respecting governance requirements
Although focused on Sudan virus disease rather than Bundibugyo virus disease, this may still be useful for viral haemorrhagic fever surveillance systems and preparedness in Africa
3. Vaccines and clinical research preparedness
+ Why this matters now
There are currently no licensed vaccines specifically for Bundibugyo virus disease. WHO has noted that the absence of approved Bundibugyo virus-specific vaccines and therapeutics is a key concern in the current outbreak (Ref).
As candidate vaccines and therapeutics move through research and development, rapid mechanisms will be needed to assess them in affected settings. This includes establishing trial-ready capacity, ensuring trained research teams are in place, and enabling protocols, ethics and regulatory processes to be activated quickly.
Clinical research preparedness is also needed beyond vaccine and therapeutic trials. The current outbreak creates urgent evidence needs around clinical presentation, severity, transmission patterns, supportive care, outcomes, diagnostic performance, health worker exposure, referral pathways, community perceptions and cross-border spread. Research readiness requires standardised protocols, ethics and regulatory preparedness, trained teams, data systems, laboratory capacity, community engagement and equitable partnerships.
The Global Health Network community will work with partners, including CEPI, EDCTP and others, to support preparedness for vaccine and therapeutic studies and to ensure that evidence can be generated rapidly and equitably.
+ Key evidence questions
What are the clinical characteristics, complications and outcomes of Bundibugyo virus disease in this outbreak?
What supportive care needs and referral pathways are being documented?
What protocols, case report forms, consent tools and data systems are needed by local teams?
What are the key barriers to activating observational studies, clinical studies or future trials quickly and ethically?
What ethics, regulatory or governance processes need to be prepared or strengthened?
How can communities be engaged early around future vaccine or therapeutic studies?
How can research partnerships ensure local leadership, fair authorship, data governance and long-term capacity strengthening?
+ Sharing learning and connect
Clinicians, researchers, ethics committees, trial teams, laboratory partners, data teams and community engagement practitioners are encouraged to share planned studies, protocols, data collection tools or research readiness needs.
This space can help connect teams with relevant training, tools, collaborators and technical guidance for ethical, rapid and locally led evidence generation.
+ Learning resources
Explore useful resources for research readiness and ethical study implementation, and clinical characterisation and outbreak data collection.
Vaccines and clinical research preparedness resources
Relevant to outbreak research. It covers ethical issues faced by health professionals and policymakers in epidemics, including research, surveillance and patient care
Very relevant for local teams preparing observational studies, clinical characterisation protocols, diagnostic studies, social science protocols or future vaccine/therapeutic studies
Useful for building the capacity of local study coordinators who may support clinical characterisation, observational studies, diagnostic studies or future vaccine/therapeutic trials
Provides Ebola infection data forms and focused critical data variables/core outcome measures for patient management records and clinical research datasets
Supports health workforce training to prevent, detect and respond to substandard and falsified medical products during outbreak preparedness and response.
Provides searchable evidence maps on Bundibugyo and other filoviruses to support rapid review of existing evidence on immunity, vaccination and evidence gaps.
Supporting Research Embedded in the Response
Connect here to work together, set out planned studies and request support where needed. Guidance can be provided for all elements of evidence generation, including study design, protocol development, ethics, data collection tools, community engagement, laboratory-linked research, clinical characterisation and research preparedness.
Researchers, laboratories, clinicians, public health teams, community engagement practitioners and partners are encouraged to register their work, share planned studies, identify evidence gaps, and request guidance, collaborators or technical support.
This space will support:
Sharing of practical tools and training resources
Identification of urgent evidence gaps
Support for locally led research
Guidance on study design, protocols, ethics, data collection and research implementation
Translation and sharing of key resources
General information: Resources providing an overview of the Ebola virus and the current outbreak
The WHO gives an overview of the Ebola virus by providing information on symptoms, treatment and prevention. Fact sheets, training and guidance are also linked for health workers.
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention presents data on the latest Ebola outbreaks as well as diagnostics, treatment, transmission and prevention.
The British Medical Journal offers a comprehensive overview on the Ebola virus epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up through a variety of resources.
Get to know about the key facts of the disease from transmission, symptoms to diagnosis. Read the Ebola fact sheet
Optimised supportive care for Ebola virus disease: clinical management standard operating procedures
Building on evidence-informed guidelines created by a multidisciplinary panel of health care providers with experience in the clinical management of patients with EVD, this guidance should serve as a foundation for oSoC that should be followed to ensure both the best possible chance for survival and allow for reliable comparison of investigational therapeutic interventions as part of a randomised controlled trial. This guideline provides recommendations for the management of adults and children. Access the clinical management SOPs
Safety of two Ebola virus vaccines
Read about Merck's rVSV-ZEBOV-GP vaccine, which was recently conditionally approved by the European Commission and pre-qualified by WHO, used according to the SAGE recommendation for expanded access in a ring vaccination strategy. Read about the Ebola vaccines here
Personal protective equipment for use in a filovirus disease outbreak: rapid advice guideline
Learn more about the guidelines on personal protective equipment for use in a filovirus disease outbreak. Read the PPE guidelines here
Framework and toolkit for infection prevention and control in outbreak preparedness, readiness and response at the national level
The framework and toolkit described here target the prevention and control of communicable diseases with community outbreak potential, which may be amplified in the health care setting; this includes diseases transmitted via contact (blood and bodily fluids), droplets or airborne. Access the toolkit here
International Classification of Diseases - 11th edition (ICD-11 2022 release)
The eleventh revision of the ICD contains around 17,000 unique codes, and more than 120,000 codable terms and is now entirely digital. Read the classification document here
New filovirus disease classification and nomenclature
The recent large outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Western Africa resulted in greatly increased accumulation of human genotypic, phenotypic and clinical data, and improved our understanding of the spectrum of clinical manifestations. As a result, the WHO disease classification of EVD underwent a major revision. Read the filovirus classification document here
Uganda Reported an Outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease
The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uganda declared an Ebola Viral Disease (EVD) outbreak in Mubende district in the central part of the country, following a confirmed case in Mubende Regional Referral Hospital. Read the article
Communique of The High-Level Emergency Ministerial Meeting on Cross Border Collaboration for Preparedness and Response to Ebola Virus Disease
The Ministers of Health of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Regional Economic Communities and partners, meeting in Kampala, Uganda on 12 October 2022; commended Africa CDC, WHO, Regional Economic Communities and other partners for their support to EVD preparedness and response, including cross-border collaboration and collectively, resolved and committed their governments and institutions. Read the document
WHO Africa Online Briefing - 06/10/2022
The WHO Regional Office for Africa held a virtual press briefing on 6th October 2022 about the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other health issues in Africa. This briefing was livestreamed on YouTube as well as on the WHO Africa Twitter and Facebook accounts. The briefing was also posted on YouTube. Read the briefing paper
This online health literacy course will explain what the Ebola virus is, where the outbreak has occurred, what the signs and symptoms of infection are, how to treat an infection and how to avoid infection
Featured video
Ethical Responses to Ebola: applying lessons learned
This seminar was chaired by Ross Upshur, featured panellists Gloria Mason Ross, David K. Kaawa-Mafigiri, and Jerome Singh, and looked at how lessons from previous Ebola outbreaks can contribute to embedding ethics in responses to the current and future Ebola outbreaks.
This space will support: