Ebola hemorrhagic fever is an acute viral disease that often leads to severe illness and death in humans and other primates. The infection typically affects multiple organs in the body and is often accompanied by hemorrhage. Once the virus has been transmitted from an animal host to a human, it can then spread through person-to-person contact.
Scientists employed and funded by NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have been working for decades to develop tests to diagnose Ebola virus early, therapies to treat illness caused by the virus, and vaccines to prevent infection.
Because of the recent outbreak in West Africa, NIAID's Vaccine Research Center is supporting the development and testing of investigational vaccines. NIAID is also researching the long-term health effects of Ebola on survivors.
Updated June 26, 2017
Top News
- Exhibit: Ebola: People + Public Health + Political Will
at the David J. Sencer CDC Museum, opened June 19, 2017
- Antibodies from Ebola survivor protect mice and ferrets against related viruses
NIAID/NIH news, May 18, 2017
- NIH study of Ebola patient traces disease progression and recovery
NIAID news, April 12, 2017
- Report: Integrating Clinical Research into Epidemic Response: The Ebola Experience
The National Academies Press, April 12, 2017
- Fogarty protects Americans by building pandemic response capacity in Ebola-hit West Africa
Mar / Apr 2017 Global Health Matters
- Profile: Fogarty Fellow Dr Gilberte Bastien tackles Ebola's unseen mental scars in Liberia
Mar / Apr 2017 Global Health Matters
- Disease ‘superspreaders’ accounted for nearly two-thirds of Ebola cases, study finds
Washington Post, February 13, 2017
- Final trial results confirm Ebola vaccine provides high protection against disease
WHO news, December 23, 2016
- Fogarty provides support to Ebola-affected countries
Nov / Dec 2016 Global Health Matters
- Ebola-affected countries receive NIH support to strengthen research capacity
Fogarty/NIH news, October 26, 2016
- Study finds Ebola treatment ZMapp holds promise, although results not definitive
NIAID/NIH news, October 13, 2016
- NIAID scientists explore connection between Ebola survival and co-infection with malaria parasites
NIAID/NIH news, August 16, 2016
- PREVAIL treatment trial for men with persistent Ebola viral RNA in semen opens in Liberia
NIAID/NIH news, July 5, 2016
- Analysis of 1976 Ebola outbreak holds lessons relevant today
Fogarty news, June 29, 2016
- Ebola, Zika modelers aim to inform policy decisions
Mar / Apr 2016 Global Health Matters
- PAHO's Dr Marcos Espinal on global partnerships to fight Zika, Ebola and other diseases
Mar / Apr 2016 Global Health Matters
- Commission considers how to improve global disease outbreak response
Mar / Apr 2016 Global Health Matters
- Experimental Ebola antibody protects monkeys: Antibody isolated from Ebola survivor can advance to clinical trials
NIAID/NIH news, February 25, 2016
- Ebola survivor study yields insights on complications of disease: Other findings may have implications for potential sexual transmission of Ebola
NIAID/NIH news, February 23, 2016
- NIH experts offer lessons learned from the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak
NIAID/NIH news, January 14, 2016
- The U.S. response to Ebola: Status of the FY2015 Emergency Ebola Appropriation
Kaiser Family Foundation, November 23, 2015
- Report: Ebola R&D landscape of clinical candidates and trials
WHO, October 2015
- Shining light on Ebola virus for faster diagnosis
Blog post by NIH Director Dr. Francis S. Collins, October 22, 2015
- Medecins Sans Frontiere (Doctors Without Borders) receives Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award for leadership in responding to Ebola outbreak in Africa
Lasker Foundation news, September 8, 2015
- NEI team in Liberia investigates ocular effects among Ebola survivors
NEI News Brief, September 8, 2015
- Characterizing Ebola transmission patterns based on Internet news reports, co-authored by Fogarty staff scientist
Clinical Infectious Diseases, September 15, 2015 (published online September 3, 2015)
- Investigational aerosolized Ebola vaccine shows promise in nonhuman primates
NIAID/NIH news, July 13, 2015
- Study of Ebola survivors opens in Liberia: Trial to examine long-term health effects of Ebola virus disease
NIAID/NIH news, June 17, 2015
- Experimental Ebola vaccine safe, prompts immune response: Results from US government-sponsored phase 1 trial of VSV vaccine reported
NIAID/NIH news, April 1, 2015
- Ebola test vaccines appear safe in Phase 2 Liberian clinical trial: Liberia-US partnership planning Phase 3 trial and study of Ebola survivors
NIAID/NIH news, March 26, 2015
- Recorded webcast: Ebola Vaccines, Passive Immunotherapy, and Antiviral Treatment
presented by Dr H. Clifford Lane, NIAID
as a part of the Special Session: Ebola Virus Disease: Responding to the Challenge
at the February 2015 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Seattle, WA
- Liberia-U.S. clinical research partnership opens trial to test Ebola treatments: Initial study will evaluate experimental drug cocktail ZMapp
NIAID/NIH news, February 27, 2015
- Ethics and Ebola: Public Health Planning and Response [Archive]
Archive of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, released February 26, 2015
- NIH Ebola vaccine trial gets underway in Liberia
Jan/Feb 2015 Global Health Matters
- Medical Education Partnership Initiative aids Ebola response
Jan/Feb 2015 Global Health Matters
- Ebola research funding initiative
from Wellcome Trust
Top Resources
- Cluster of Ebola virus disease linked to a single funeral - Moyamba District, Sierra Leone, 2014
Co-authored by Fogarty Deputy Director Dr. Peter H. Kilmarx
CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), March 4, 2016
- Scientists report on trial of early-generation Ebola, Marburg vaccine candidates: NIH-sponsored trial in Uganda informed development of current NIAID/GSK vaccine candidate
NIAID/NIH news, December 23, 2014
- Building the human capacity to deal with Ebola: How can we prevent future disease outbreaks?
by Fogarty Director Dr Roger I Glass
American Society for Microbiology's Cultures, Autumn 2014
- NCATS repurposing test identifies 53 drugs that may block Ebola infection
NCATS/NIH news, December 2014
- Obama visits NIH to call for more funding for Ebola research
Nov/Dec 2014 Global Health Matters
- NIH accelerates clinical trials of Ebola vaccines
Nov/Dec 2014 Global Health Matters
- Building the human capacity to deal with Ebola: How can we prevent future disease outbreaks?
Opinion by Fogarty Director Dr Roger I Glass
Nov/Dec 2014 Global Health Matters
- Lessons learned from 1976 Ebola outbreak:
Q and A with Fogarty Scientist Emeritus Dr Joel Breman
Nov/Dec 2014 Global Health Matters
- NIAID/GSK experimental Ebola vaccine appears safe, prompts immune response
NIAID/NIH news, November 26, 2014
- NIH Ebola update: working toward treatments and vaccines
NIH Director's Blog, updated October 22, 2014
- NIH begins early human clinical trial of VSV Ebola vaccine
NIAID/NIH news, October 22, 2014
- NIH special grand rounds on Ebola [Video]
Featuring NIAID Director Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and NIH Clinical Center colleagues
October 22, 2014
- NIH grants license agreement for candidate Ebola vaccines
NIAID/NIH news, October 15, 2014
- Transmission dynamics and control of Ebola virus disease outbreak in Nigeria, July to September 2014, co-authored by Fogarty staff scientist
Eurosurveillance, October 9, 2014
- NIH speeds efforts to test vaccine against Ebola
Sep / Oct 2014 Global Health Matters
- Fact Sheet: U.S. response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa [Archive]
Archive of the White House news, September 16, 2014
- Journal article: Ebola then and now
coauthored by Fogarty Senior Scientific Adviser Emeritus Dr. Joel Breman
New England Journal of Medicine, Online First, September 10, 2014
- Rapid and durable protection against Ebola virus with new vaccine regimens:
NIH scientists and collaborators report positive results in monkeys
NIAID/NIH news, September 7, 2014
- Single animal to human transmission event responsible for 2014 Ebola outbreak:
NIH-funded scientist uses latest genomic technology to make discovery
NIH news, August 29, 2014
- Ebola outbreak strains sequenced
The Scientist, August 28, 2014
- NIH to launch human safety study of Ebola vaccine candidate
Trial is first in series of accelerated safety studies of Ebola vaccines
NIAID/NIH news, August 28, 2014
Includes questions and answers about phase 1 clinical trials of NIAID/GSK investigational Ebola vaccine
- NLM launches emergency access initiative, granting free access to books and journals for healthcare professionals fighting Ebola outbreak
NLM news, August 2014
- Eradicating Ebola: In U.S. biomedical research, we trust
NIH Director's Blog, August 11, 2014
- Ebola outbreak highlights global disparities in healthcare resources
NIAID news, August 13, 2014
- Recent Ebola outbreak highlights need for better global response
NIAID news, May 7, 2014
From the NIH research archives: