On May 17th, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of Bundibugyo virus disease a public health emergency of international concern. Currently there are no approved virus-specific treatments or vaccines for Bundibugyo.
In just four days, the team at ALEC and the Kirby Institute have developed an evidence map of existing research for this disease, a critical tool for researchers needing to accelerate the development of effective vaccines and treatments during this unfolding emergency.
The evidence map serves as a comprehensive repository to enable researchers, product developers and policy makers to efficiently access all the relevant past studies, eliminating the duplication of tasks when time is of the essence. People using the map will be able to address specific research questions, compare relevant studies, and identify common themes, gaps and inconsistencies in the existing body of literature on Bundibugyo virus disease.
How did we do this so quickly?
We have been developing similar maps for the last 18 months for Ebola, Marburg and Sudan viruses, as well as Mpox. This experience has provided our team with the skills to produce high quality, relevant and practical evidence maps for emerging diseases using a framework that has already been piloted and improved over several months.
Automated screening and extraction tools were not used. The process of identifying publications for inclusion and categorisation was undertaken manually by our team members.
Anyone requiring further information on the evidence map for Bundibugyo is welcome to email our team: [email protected]
