Key data for outbreak evaluation: building on the Ebola experience

Cori, Anne; Donnelly, Christl A.; Dorigatti, Ilaria; Ferguson, Neil M.; Fraser, Christophe; Garske, Tini; Jombart, Thibaut; Nedjati-Gilani, Gemma; Nouvellet, Pierre; Riley, Steven; Van Kerkhove, Maria D.; Mills, Harriet L.; Blake, Isobel M.

Vaccine or treatment trials together with case-control and cohort studies can be useful in assessing the impact of an intervention. For example, during the West African Ebola epidemic there was an urgent need to estimate the efficacy of newly developed vaccines. Trials such as the Guinea Ebola ça suffit vaccine trial [118] provided key data on the effectiveness of the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine [119, 120] . These trials occurred at the tail end of the epidemic and results will be useful in future outbreaks. Statistical power from trials will be maximized by implementing such studies as early as possible in future outbreaks. This will be facilitated if research on diagnostics, drugs and vaccines is promoted between, and not only during, outbreaks, e.g. through new initiatives such as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation [121] .