Anthropic's Claude accelerates Ebola outbreak response in DRC

Paul Ouma: Paul Ouma is part of the WHO AFRO response team. He has noted that Claude now allows running multiple disease models concurrently, overcoming previous time constraints and improving forecasts for treatment center placement and logistics. Tendai Muza: Tendai Muza leads data systems and analytics work at WHO AFRO. With colleagues, he built a Claude skill that extracts numbers from district reports, compares trends, and summarizes findings to reduce sitrep production time from a full day to under an hour. Tamayi Mlanda: Tamayi Mlanda collaborates on data systems at WHO AFRO. He contributed to developing the Claude-based workflow that streamlines outbreak reporting and supports advanced analytics during the DRC Ebola response. Polina Brangel: Polina Brangel is R&D Data Innovation Lead at CEPI. She has described how Claude organizes multi-factor vaccine proposal data to speed expert review while preserving human scientific judgment on sample cohorts and cross-reactivity analysis for Ervebo against BDBV. Gianni Donkor Muza: Gianni Donkor Muza works on data systems at WHO AFRO. He helped create the Claude skill for processing health zone reports and identifying changes in outbreak trends to inform faster response decisions. Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe: Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe is Director General of DRC’s National Institute of Biomedical Research, special adviser to the Africa CDC director general, and co-discoverer of the Ebolavirus. He has underscored that real-time knowledge of virus location remains essential in Ebola responses, now enhanced by AI-supported data tools in the BDBV outbreak. Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale: The Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) serves as the DRC's primary biomedical research institute, leading genomic sequencing and virus analysis. During the ongoing outbreak, INRB has applied Claude Science for plain-language bioinformatics tasks such as genome assembly and phylogenetic tree construction to trace transmission chains. Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations: The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) accelerates vaccine development for emerging infectious diseases through partnerships and funding. In the current Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in DRC, CEPI has convened efforts with WHO AFRO and INRB to deploy Claude AI for organizing vaccine research data, building tracking dashboards, and supporting candidate evaluation. World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa: The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) coordinates public health responses across the continent, including outbreak management and data systems. In eastern DRC, its emergencies hub has integrated Claude AI to automate situation report compilation from field data, enable multi-model disease forecasting, and support logistics planning during the BDBV response. AI Integration: Global health partners are applying Claude AI in real-time outbreak settings to reduce manual data processing burdens and enable simultaneous analysis tasks. Vaccine Research: CEPI is advancing candidates and related science for the Bundibugyo strain, which currently lacks an approved vaccine, while assessing potential cross-protection from existing Zaire strain vaccines. Outbreak Response: WHO AFRO is exploring Claude applications for cleaning outbreak line lists and stitching historical disease data to inform decisions across multiple public health events.