When most people hear “Ebola,” they think of a single disease caused by a single virus.
Scientists know better. Ebola virus disease is caused by several distinct virus species capable of causing devastating outbreaks in humans, each with important biological differences that influence diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, and outbreak response. Yet for much of the past decade, global preparedness efforts have largely focused on a single species: Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV).
The ongoing Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has become the largest Ebola outbreak in the country’s history and the second-largest Ebola epidemic ever recorded, surpassed only by the 2014–2016 West Africa epidemic. Beyond its devastating human toll, the outbreak has exposed a fundamental weakness in the global approach to epidemic preparedness. After investing billions of dollars in the wake of the West African epidemic, we built extraordinary capabilities — but largely for one Ebola virus. In preparing so well for one Ebola virus species, we left ourselves vulnerable to others.
The response to the West African epidemic transformed Ebola preparedness. We developed rapid diagnostics, established international clinical trial networks, licensed an effective vaccine, identified therapies that dramatically reduced mortality, and built regulatory and manufacturing pathways capable of accelerating the development and deployment of medical countermeasures. These achievements represent one of the greatest successes in modern outbreak science.
