Community Engagement for Improved Ebola Disease Outbreak Prevention and Response in Uganda - Co-design for Future Global and Local Strategies

Ebola disease (EBD) is a haemorrhagic viral fever with high case fatality rate in humans with pandemic potential. Outbreaks are regularly reported from Uganda with fruit bats being an important reservoir for the virus and with occasional spillovers to humans, non-human primates, and possibly other wild and domestic animals.The proposed project will improve prevention, early detection, reporting and response to EBD outbreaks in Uganda and beyond. This will be done through participatory methods building understanding about the complexity of factors that contribute to disease emergence, and by co-designed community interventions for improved disease prevention and response.It is increasingly recognized that “knowledge gaps” have a comparatively limited role in spread of diseases, but that cultural and social factors that build local rationales for how people act are more important. This has impact for prevention and response to infectious diseases such as EBD as understanding and working with, rather than against, such social and cultural norms is essential for improving disease control. The project is operationalised in 5 work packages, with research expertise from Sweden and Uganda in global public health, veterinary epidemiology, ecology, rural development, ethnography and implementation science.The findings from the project are expected to contribute important knowledge on how to build successful community health systems for zoonotic diseases in contexts of high poverty.