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Opinion: What Ebola and Marburg Are Teaching Us About the Next Pandemic
by Krutika Kuppalli and Placide Mbala
Published 2026-07-01 08:30:00+00:00
If the next outbreak looks nothing like the last, will the diagnostic tools even recognize it?
0:00 / 10:00 · Narrator Vindemiatrix
Context
Writing on 1 July 2026, Krutika Kuppalli and Placide Mbala-Kingebeni examine the friction between rigid diagnostic algorithms and the messy reality of viral outbreaks in Central Africa. The piece suggests that the global health community remains trapped in a reactive cycle, building tools for the last emergency while remaining blind to the current one. By looking at why specific Ebola tests failed to catch a different strain, the authors ask what it would mean to adopt a pathogen-agnostic approach—one that prioritizes a patient’s actual symptoms over a pre-selected list of suspects.