WHO has received a US$ 3 million grant from Wellcome to strengthen the generation and use of community evidence alongside epidemiological, clinical and laboratory data throughout the response to Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD). The investment will help ensure that operational decisions are also informed by evidence on how affected communities experience, understand and respond to the outbreak.
At a time when no specific medical countermeasures are available for BVD, understanding community perceptions, behaviours and barriers to care is critical to controlling transmission.
The funding will enable WHO and partners to expand rapid assessments for community protection – a standardized interagency approach that generates real-time social and behavioural evidence to guide outbreak response, helping ensure that response measures are shaped not only by the biology of the disease, but also by evidence on the realities people face on the ground.
"Every outbreak is shaped not only by the pathogen, but also by how people understand risk, access care and respond to public health measures," said Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Executive Director of WHO's Health Emergencies Programme. "This investment is about making social analytics part of how outbreak intelligence works in practice. By integrating community-generated evidence throughout the response, we can build a more complete picture of the outbreak and make faster, more effective decisions that ultimately save lives."
Turning community evidence into operational action
Since the Public Health Emergency of International Concern for Bundibugyo virus disease was declared on 17 May 2026, WHO's Health Emergencies Programme has been working with the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to conduct rapid assessments in affected communities.
Rather than relying solely on epidemiological indicators, the assessments examine how people perceive risk, seek care, respond to public health measures and experience the broader social and economic impacts of the outbreak. They provide response leaders with a more complete understanding of the factors influencing transmission, access to health services and public trust.
This evidence is already informing practical decisions on the ground. Findings have highlighted opportunities to strengthen community-based surveillance, improve access to toll-free hotlines, expand psychosocial support for frontline health workers and make communication around laboratory results more timely and predictable. They have also identified practical ways to increase confidence in care, including reducing ambulance delays, expanding reception capacity in treatment centres and improving understanding of how care facilities operate.
The work is led by national authorities in affected countries, with WHO and partners providing technical and operational support.
Making social and behavioural analytics part of outbreak intelligence
Community engagement is often associated with listening, outreach or message delivery. But effective outbreak response also requires rigorous scientific methods to understand how communities interpret risk, make decisions and interact with health services, and to translate that evidence rapidly into operational action.
"We are public health practitioners and scientists first," said Dr Nina Gobat, Senior Technical Officer for Community Protection and Resilience, who leads the project. "Understanding how communities experience and respond to an outbreak requires specific expertise. That evidence has to be generated with rigour, and it has to move at the same speed as the outbreak itself."
Rapid assessments for community protection provide a standardized methodology developed by WHO with UNICEF, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and partners. Already used during responses to mpox, Ebola and cholera, the approach has generated community evidence across settings affecting more than 8.8 million people. Built on common standards, ethical principles and robust quality assurance, it provides decision-makers with reliable, actionable insights from affected communities.
The new Wellcome support will enable this work to be conducted systematically throughout the BVD response, creating a continuous stream of social and behavioural analytics that complements epidemiological, clinical and laboratory information. It builds on earlier important investments and on integrated outbreak analytics successfully implemented during the 2018–2020 Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"Outbreak response cannot be designed from a distance. Understanding the social and behavioural realities of affected communities from the start of a crisis is essential to designing effective interventions," said Natsuko Imai, Research Lead in Epidemics and Epidemiology at Wellcome. "From enabling safe, dignified burials to understanding healthcare access and the spread of misinformation, this evidence helps tailor responses to real-world needs. Investing in this science means faster, more adaptive and effective outbreak response."
As the Bundibugyo virus disease response continues, WHO and its partners are working to ensure that community-generated evidence becomes a routine component of outbreak intelligence, helping decision-makers respond more quickly, build trust and improve the effectiveness of public health interventions during this outbreak and future health emergencies.
