32.1 Case Study: Clinical Research Communications during an Outbreak: Media Outreach Supporting Liberia–U.S. Research Partnership

Abstract

AbstractThe 2014 bilateral agreement signed by the Liberia Minister of Health and Social Welfare and his counterpart at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services established the Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia (PREVAIL). The urgent purpose was to begin a research partnership to assess the safety and efficacy of candidate vaccines and therapies to prevent and treat Ebola virus disease (EVD) during the outbreak that had been affecting Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone since early 2014. As of 2024, PREVAIL continues to conduct research related to a variety of infectious diseases of concern in West Africa. During the Ebola outbreak, PREVAIL’s Communications Pillar within the Social Mobilization and Communications Working Group sought to optimize media messaging, support robust social mobilization and patient recruitment into clinical trials, foster relationships with partner organizations, develop standard operating procedures for communications, conduct media training sessions, and facilitate media interviews and press conferences. It emphasized transparent, honest, and clear communication to support the PREVAIL clinical research infrastructure, the conduct of clinical trials, and community acceptance of research with the potential to mitigate the Ebola virus outbreak in a country with scarce resources and limited clinical research experience.