Coordinated Action on viral haemorrhagic fevers

Last updated on 27 March 2025

In brief

Viral haemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) encompass a certain number of serious systemic viral infections that can lead to haemorrhagic syndromes. These diseases are highly contagious, highly fatal and difficult to treat with current medical resources.
They constitute a global public health concern owing to their potential to emerge and re-emerge and their severity.
This Coordinated Action is a group for strategic reflection and interaction dedicated to scientific research on viral haemorrhagic fevers. It specifically focuses on Group 4 pathogens : Crimean-Congo, Filoviruses – Ebola, Marburg, Arenaviruses, – Lassa, Lujo, Junin, Machupo, Chapare, Sabia, Guanarito and Whitewater Arroyo.

Activities

The Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers workgroup, originally established by the REACTing consortium, was integrated into our agency in 2021 and restructured as a Coordinated Action in 2023. Calling upon a community of experts from diverse academic institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and ANRS partner sites, the activities of this Coordinated Action aim to promote the development of research in the field of VHFs. Since its launch, this workgroup has:

met during health emergencies to share information from the field, define research priorities relating to epidemics and drive new collaborative initiatives among member institutions.
created or strengthened collaborations centred around structural research projects, focusing on the diagnostic, preventive and curative measures to implement in order to effectively combat VHFs.

This approach was cemented by the emergency funding and mobilisation of research efforts during the Lassa fever and Marburg virus disease outbreaks in Guinea (2021), Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania (2023).

This Coordinated Action encompasses a broad spectrum of expertise and research domains, including basic and applied research, pre-clinical investigations, interventional studies, epidemiology, diagnostic strategies, therapeutic management, vaccinology, sociology and anthropology.