Evaluation and Support to EVD Cured Patients and Their Contacts (Les Vainqueurs d'Ebola)

Plain-language summary

Ebola virus is one of the most dangerous human pathogens and is an emerging public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa. Ebola virus disease (EVD) first appeared in 1976. The current epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is one of the largest and most complex ever recorded, and is not yet under control: a new death has been reported on April 10th, 2020. The epidemic was declared a public health emergency of international scope by the World Health Organization (WHO) on July 17th, 2019. Two studies are the "standard" in the assessment of the consequences of infection in survivors, in Liberia (PREVAIL) and Guinea (PostEbogui), especially in: * The observation of comparable mortality rates, even if over time there was an improvement in survival, probably linked to the improvement in the quality of care and symptomatic treatment; * And the study of the contacts of the survivors, between 4 to 10% of them had done seroconversion with regard to Ebola virus (EBOV) in an asymptomatic or pauci-symptomatic way and that this rate varied according to the degree of exposure to the risk. The DRC's experience in this area and the enormous progress made in the fight against Viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs), therapeutically and preventively (where much of which patients have benefited from antiviral treatment or monoclonal antibodies), the technological responses (real-time sequencing of Ebola strains in new cases, vaccination or the use of individual isolation units), show the limits of their effectiveness. A large number of questions therefore remain unanswered: * The antibody profile of the survivors, in particular the repertoire of immunoglobulin G (IgG) specific to these individuals and its correlation with survival and its evolution over time; * The impact of treatments initiated during the acute phase on these immune abnormalities; * Finally, genetic factors linked to the host could play an important role in the response to the Ebola virus. The aim of this study is to provide a better overall understanding of Ebola virus infection and its clinical, virological, and immunological consequences, of cured people and their contacts; strengthen multidisciplinary monitoring of patients after an acute phase of EVD. The results will therefore have a direct impact on the clinical management of this population and on the prevention of possible secondary contamination in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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