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Ebola virus disease (EVD) news, resources and funding for global health researchers

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 past outbreaks 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.

Fogarty is supporting grants to plan research training and capacity building programs focused on emerging viral epidemics in collaboration with institutions in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Updated January 2021

Top News

• An Ebola therapy two decades in the making
  NIH researcher Dr Nancy Sullivan led development of cutting-edge treatment
  NIH Intramural Research Program blog post, February 10, 2021
• FDA approves treatment [evaluated in a clinical trial led by NIH, DRC’s Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale] for Ebola virus
  FDA news, December 21, 2020
• Reston Ebolavirus spreads efficiently in pigs, finding reveals potential for spread to humans
  NIAID/NIH news, December 21, 2020
• Ebola: Then, Now and the NIH [Video]
  NIH Demystifying Medicine Lecture
  Recorded January 14, 2020
• Investigational drugs reduce risk of death from Ebola Virus Disease
  NIAID/NIH news, November 27, 2019
• Candidate Ebola vaccine still effective when highly diluted, macaque study finds
  Scientists hope findings mean vaccine supplies could stretch farther
  NIAID/NIH media advisory, October 18, 2019
• Ebola in Zaire, 1976: The Past as Prologue [Video]
  featuring Fogarty senior scientist emeritus Dr. Joel Breman
  CDC, September 5, 2019
• NIAID’s ongoing Ebola efforts in Congo, elsewhere
  NIAID Funding News, September 05, 2019
• Independent monitoring board recommends early termination of Ebola therapeutics trial in DRC because of favorable results with two of four candidates
  NIAID/NIH news, August 12, 2019
• Investigational monoclonal antibody to treat Ebola is safe in adults
  NIAID/NIH news, January 25, 2019
• Clinical trial of investigational Ebola treatments begins in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
  NIAID/NIH news, November 27, 2018
• Experts highlight Ebola vaccine progress and suggest next steps
  NIAID/NIH news, August 13, 2018
• Related publication: Prevention of Ebola virus disease through vaccination: where we are in 2018
  The Lancet, August 10, 2018
• Scientists find strong immune cell responses in Ebola survivors
  NIAID Now blog, August 9, 2018
• Broadly acting antibodies found in plasma of Ebola survivors
  NIAID/NIH news, July 17, 2018
• NIAID responds to Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
  NIAID Now blog, June 25, 2018
• NIH begins testing Ebola treatment in early-stage trial
  NIAID/NIH news, May 23, 2018
• Despite mutations in Makona Ebola virus, disease consistent in mice, monkeys
  NIAID news, May 8, 2018
• Ebola virus infects reproductive organs in monkeys
  NIAID/NIH news, February 8, 2018

Top Resources

• CDC on Ebola (Ebola Virus Disease)
• CDC information for healthcare workers
• CDC Global Health Security Agenda
• About Ebola from NIAID
• About Ebola from NIH's MedlinePlus

NIH News and Resources

• Recorded webcast: Antibodies Against Ebola and Lassa: A Global Collaboration [Video]
  by Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D.
  Kinyoun Memorial Lecture from NIAID, December 5, 2017
• Fogarty funds additional grants to support research training in Ebola-affected countries
  Sep / Oct 2017 Global Health Matters
• 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
• Related publication: Spatial and temporal dynamics of superspreading events in the 2014–2015 West Africa Ebola epidemic, co-authored by Fogarty Scientist
  PNAS, February 13, 2017 (online)
• Fogarty provides support to Ebola-affected countries
  Nov / Dec 2016 Global Health Matters
• Analysis of 1976 Ebola outbreak holds lessons relevant today
  Fogarty news, June 29, 2016
• Related publication: Discovery and description of Ebola Zaire Virus in 1976 and relevance to the West African epidemic during 2013-2016
  The Journal of Infectious Diseases, June 29, 2016
• History credits [Dr Peter Piot] with discovering Ebola on his own. History is wrong
  STAT, July 14, 2014
• 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
• Special issue on Ebola
  Clinical Trials, January 14, 2016 (online)
• 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
• Related publication: Aerosolized Ebola vaccine protects primates and elicits lung-resident T cell responses
  Journal of Clinical Investigation, 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
• Ebola vaccine trial opens in Liberia: Study led by Liberia-NIH partnership will test two experimental vaccines
  NIAID/NIH news, February 2, 2015
• Medical Education Partnership Initiative aids Ebola response
  Jan/Feb 2015 Global Health Matters
• Ebola research funding initiative
  from Wellcome Trust
• 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
• Related journal article: Safety and immunogenicity of Ebola virus and Marburg virus glycoprotein DNA vaccines assessed separately and concomitantly in healthy Ugandan adults: a phase 1b, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial
  The Lancet, December 22, 2014 (online)
• 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
• President Obama Speaks on the Fight Against Ebola [Video] [Archive]
  Archive of the White House videos, December 2, 2014
• "A Test of Our Character as a Nation": President Obama on What We Need in the Fight Against Ebola [Archive]
  Archive of the White House Blog, December 2, 2014
• President's visit to NIH highlights research on Ebola
  Blog post by NIH Director Dr. Francis S. Collins, December 2, 2014
• 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
• NIH special grand rounds on Ebola [Video]
  Featuring NIAID Director Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and NIH Clinical Center colleagues
  October 22, 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
• 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
• Ebola outbreak strains sequenced
  The Scientist, August 28, 2014
• Related publications:
  > Genomic surveillance elucidates Ebola virus origin and transmission during the 2014 outbreak
  > Related supplementary materials, including public sequence data
  Science, September 12, 2014
• Using genomics to follow the path of Ebola
  NIH Director's Blog, September 2, 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
• Related journal article: Ebola - underscoring the global disparities in health care resources by NIAID Director Dr Anthony S Fauci
  New England Journal of Medicine, August 13, 2014
• Recent Ebola outbreak highlights need for better global response
  NIAID news, May 7, 2014

From the NIH research archives:

• NIH scientists identify protective role for antibodies in Ebola vaccine study
  NIAID news, January 14, 2013
• Tracking a deadly [Ebola] virus
  NIH Director's Blog, November 14, 2012
• Archive: NIH-supported experimental Marburg vaccine prevents disease two days after infection
  NIAID news, Jun. 16, 2010
• Archive: Experimental vaccine protects monkeys from new Ebola virus
  NIAID news, May 20, 2010

Other US Government Resources

• U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Ebola resources:
• CDC on Ebola (Ebola Virus Disease)
• CDC information for healthcare workers
• Past exhibit: Ebola: People + Public Health + Political Will
  at the David J. Sencer CDC Museum, June 2017 - June 2018
• United States Agency for International Development (USAID):
• USAID Ebola news and resources

Other Online Resources

• Ebola virus disease (EVD) information and resources
  from the World Health Organization (WHO)
• Ebola Resource Centre
  The Lancet
• Ebola toolbox
  from MEDBOX, the Aid Library, administered by the Medical Mission Institute, the Association for Overseas Medical Services, a non-profit advisory organization for international health, based in Würzburg, Germany