The WHO R&D Blueprint team organized a consultation to discuss a new WHO Strategic Agenda for Filovirus Research and Monitoring (AFIRM). The aim of the meeting was to establish a set of research priorities for filovirus diseases during the next decade. These priorities will be embedded in three major action areas, namely, (i) anticipation of future outbreaks, (ii) research to develop and evaluate vaccines and (iii) therapeutics for filovirus diseases. Recommendations from stakeholders including scientists, regulatory experts and developers were sought in order to accomplish short- and medium-term goals. The meeting took place on Wednesday, 30 March, 2022 from 13:00 to 20:00 CET (Geneva time).
Invited experts included:
- Leading researchers on filovirus basic and translational research
- Global experts on evidence synthesis and critical appraisal of evidence
- Regulatory authorities
- Vaccine developers
PRESENTATIONS:
- Welcome & Objectives of the meeting
- Filoviruses as a global public health threat
- Presentation of the WHO AFIRM Strategy Roadmap
Session 1. Anticipation: Research Priorities to Prevent Future Outbreaks
- Marburg virus ecology
- Ebolavirus ecology
- Filovirus persistence and its implications for public health
- Outbreak prediction tools and molecular epidemiology
- Use of MinION sequencing for contact tracing of Ebola and Marburg virus diseases in outbreak situations
Session 2. Reinforcement: Ongoing research efforts to expand the vaccine portfolio against filoviruses
- Ebola virus vaccine efficacy and deployment update
- Sudan virus vaccine overview
- WHO Core Protocol for filovirus vaccine clinical trials
- Immunobridging for evaluation of filovirus vaccines
Session 3. Cure: Post exposure prophylaxis and therapy
- Updates on antibody therapy
- Filovirus therapeutics
- Advances in management of filoviral diseases: Part 1
- Advances in management of filoviral diseases: Part 2
- Conclusions
RECORDING
