Ebola Bundibugyo Outbreak Dashboard
Expanding upon the Hantavirus template
Similar to what I did for the hantavirus outbreak, I’ve now set up an Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak tracking dashboard that combines case information with genomic surveillance. Many of the data sources and charts are re-used, just swapping out the pathogen. My goal with these dashboards is to bring together multi-modal surveillance as well as combining data from different geographic jurisdictions. In this case most of the data is from the DRC, but there is also information on cases and sequences from Uganda as well. There are so many different sources of surveillance data for public health - from traditional case surveillance, to genomic surveillance, to wastewater. Often these are presented completely separately and it’s not always easy to look across different data systems and types. I’m mostly focused on case-based and genomic surveillance, but I’ll add in other sources over time as I find them.
I’d like to thank Brenna Doran who published a nice piece in Infection Control Today talking about the hantavirus outbreak and the different levels of data reporting and highlighted the hantavirus dashboard. One thing she touched on in the article and I want to make really clear - the only reason I can make these types of dashboards with the custom layout and speed I can is because I am not a government employee. I spent a decade doing governmental public health work - when I tried to add genomic data to the SARS-CoV-2 dashboard, I was told that request had to go through the dashboard team. Every time I asked it was going to be 6 more months - so my group continued to publish our standalone PDF report for months on end.
When my words and visuals represented the state government, things had to be checked through many levels because those communications carried the weight of official government communications, and all IT tools had to be vetted and approved. That is a good and necessary thing. But it can also be incredibly frustrating to the talented scientists within public health agencies who can have all the great ideas in the world, but must follow prescribed paths to get to launch. With these current efforts, the only thing on the line if I mess up my data or visuals is my own reputation, and I get to decide how much risk I want to take with that!
Despite those challenges, there are several other great dashboards already available from official sources! One is from the DRC Ministry of Health, and one from the National Institution for Biomedical Research (INRB).
Back to the ebola virus disease outbreak. This one is tough, it was detected relatively late and there are already over 1,000 suspected cases. Scientists and health workers are working hard on the ground, but they’re playing catch up. Despite the challenges, there is a lot of good work happening to collect and disseminate data - for my dashboard, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) case indicators are generated from the INRB/INOHA and INSP Ebola_DRC_2026 data repository, which compiles epidemiological and operational data from the Institut National de Santé Publique (INSP) SitRep MVE PDF series. Uganda case and death counts are parsed from the WHO daily epidemiological update image.
On the sequencing data side, in the DRC, scientists from the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) began sequencing immediately, and sharing interpretation through multiple channels such as LinkedIn and Virological. Scientists at the Central Public Health Laboratory (CPHL), Kampala - Uganda have also completed sequencing and shared data. Sequence data from both countries is being shared in near real-time through Pathoplexus. As of May 29th, 16 sequences from the current outbreak are available from 2 countries (Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda) with a collection-to-release turnaround time range of 1 -26 days (median 13 days) . Sequences from the current outbreak were submitted by Pathogen Genomic Lab, INRB (14), Central Public Health Laboratories, Uganda (1), Charite Virology (1).
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Much appreciation for all the scientists, medical personnel and public health workers who are working round the clock to protect the population. Questions, comments, or other visuals you’d like to see? Reach out and let me know!