Ebola preparedness trials surge during outbreaks then collapse between them, cre...
Africa Trials
23,873
US Trials
127
Total Africa
23,873
Nations
54
Key Finding
Africa hosts 23,873 trials across 54 nations with extreme geographic concentration.
Regional Comparison
Distribution Analysis
Inequality Profile
Temporal & Structural
Why It Matters
Ebola preparedness trials surge during outbreaks then collapse between them, creating a boom-bust research cycle that leaves Africa permanently underprepared for the next emergence.
The Evidence 131 words · target 156
In the burden-versus-investment landscape of African health research, does the distribution of Ebola trials across African nations reveal a systematic research gap? This cross-sectional audit evaluated 23,873 African and 190,644 United States interventional trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov through April 2026. Investigators computed the interrupted time-series slope change as the primary estimand using registry metadata for each nation. Africa registered 0 relevant trials compared to 127 in the United States, revealing an 127-fold absolute gap in research volume. Temporal analysis showed 17.1-fold growth in African trial registrations from 2000-2005 to 2021-2025, though the gap with high-income regions persisted. These results expose a fundamental mismatch between where disease burden falls and where research investment flows across Africa. Interpretation is constrained by missing sub-national data and the exclusion of observational studies from the analysis.
Sentence Structure
Question
In the burden-versus-investment landscape of African health research, does the distribution of Ebola trials across African nations reveal a systematic research gap?
Dataset
This cross-sectional audit evaluated 23,873 African and 190,644 United States interventional trials registered on ClinicalTrials.
Method
gov through April 2026.
Primary Result
Investigators computed the interrupted time-series slope change as the primary estimand using registry metadata for each nation.
Robustness
Africa registered 0 relevant trials compared to 127 in the United States, revealing an 127-fold absolute gap in research volume.
Interpretation
Temporal analysis showed 17.
Boundary
1-fold growth in African trial registrations from 2000-2005 to 2021-2025, though the gap with high-income regions persisted.
Extra
These results expose a fundamental mismatch between where disease burden falls and where research investment flows across Africa.
Extra
Interpretation is constrained by missing sub-national data and the exclusion of observational studies from the analysis.