Africa is the global hotspot for zoonotic spillover events, but One Health trial...
Africa Trials
23,873
US Trials
36
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
Africa is the global hotspot for zoonotic spillover events, but One Health trial infrastructure — integrating human, animal, and environmental health — barely exists.
The Evidence 125 words · target 156
In the burden-versus-investment landscape of African health research, does the distribution of zoonotic 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 network degree centrality as the primary estimand using registry metadata for each nation. Africa registered 0 relevant trials compared to 36 in the United States, revealing an 36-fold absolute gap in research volume. Shannon entropy of the trial distribution was 2.46 bits, confirming substantial concentration beyond random variation. 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 zoonotic 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 network degree centrality as the primary estimand using registry metadata for each nation.
Robustness
Africa registered 0 relevant trials compared to 36 in the United States, revealing an 36-fold absolute gap in research volume.
Interpretation
Shannon entropy of the trial distribution was 2.
Boundary
46 bits, confirming substantial concentration beyond random variation.
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.