Science Friday
Hosted by Flora Lichtman
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A Nigeria-based molecular biologist breaks down the current Ebola outbreak, and what's needed to improve disease monitoring across Africa.
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Hey, it's Flora and you're listening to Science Friday. The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring Uganda is caused by the Bundabouja virus. There's no specific treatment or vaccine for this strain, unlike the more common Zaire strain, which caused the 2014 outbreak. Here to give us an update and put the news in context is Dr. Christian Happi. He's a molecular biologist who has dedicated his career to improving genomic sequencing capabilities and virus monitoring across the continent of Africa. Dr. Happi is a distinguished professor at Redeemers University and runs the Institute of Genomics and Global Health in Nigeria. Welcome to Science Friday. Thank you for being here.
Thank you.
So, I want to start with the Bundabouja virus. What's different about it compared to this Zaire strain?
The Bundabouja virus, or strain of Ebola, is different from the Zaire strain, simply because it has diverged. It has evolved, it has followed a different evolutionary path, and for that reason, the virus is quite divergent from the Zaire strain. And that divergence actually creates its own challenge, because diagnostics, vaccines, and drugs are often very strain-specific, because they are targeting some very specific epitopes in any virus. And because the Bundabouja virus has not been studied extensively, that is the reason
why now we want to use this outbreak, in order to not only sequence the virus, but actually leverage the data that will be coming from the outbreak to develop the necessary countermeasures. And these countermeasures are drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics.
Had it not been sequenced before?
Not really. I think, you know, when we had our last outbreak, when the Bujumbujua outbreak, I mean, uh, occurred, I think that was probably two thousand and seven. There were, I mean, at that time, genomic sequencing was not really at the stage where it is now. It was a technology that was in infancy. And at the, at that time, we didn't have the capability to actually to generate the data through genome, genome sequencing. And between two thousand and seven and now, a lot has changed. And they will really want to take advantage of it now to, to, to study this virus in a way that wasn't done before. In order to develop the continuous estimation before.
Why hasn't there been as much research into this strain?
Uh, simply because there is, you know, um, the global health community in general. And then the governments in Africa in particular have not really invested in surveillance. If we had intentionally invested in doing, you know, to do viral disease surveillance or to do, so do pathogen genomic surveillance. We could have probably come across, you know, the virus, sequence it. And then eventually today, we wouldn't have been in the situation where we are. So clearly, it's simply because there have really not been intentional investment on disease surveillance using a genomic approach.
I mean, that is exactly your thing, right? Genomic surveillance.
Correct.
I want to talk a little bit about the Sentinel project. You co-created this early warning pathogen detection network called Sentinel, along with Dr. Pardis Sabetti of the Broad Institute of MIT. Talk to me about Sentinel and talk to me about your role in this outbreak.
Uh, the Sentinel system is an early warning system for pandemic preemption and response. It is that system that we invented and started implementing in twenty fourteen to change the way we respond to disease outbreak. And in twenty fourteen, we tested and pressure tested and validated the Sentinel system.
And twenty fourteen was the, was an Ebola, there was another Ebola outbreak.
That was, that was when we had the largest Ebola outbreak ever, and that was in West Africa.
Yes.
And the Sentinel system is, is built on three major pillars. The first pillar is detect, so which is basically detection in near real time of known and unknown pathogens. And eventually developing tools to detect pathogen very quickly and share those information with national public health authorities. The second pillar is connect, that is basically making sure the informations are available in near real time to policymakers and people across the decision-making chain so that they can use those information to make targeted and very coordinated intervention to respond to outbreak.
Because we've realized that, you know, you need two major things to contain an outbreak. One is speed, second is accuracy. And then the third pillar is empower, pretty much that is empowering all the actors that are involved in disease surveillance and in outbreak response in a way that everybody across the value chain is empowered and then they can actually use and we can coordinate the response in a way that from grassroots to the top, you know, everybody is involved and everybody feel concerned. The Sentinel system actually demonstrated its ability and its capability in twenty fourteen. For the first time, we were sequencing the genome of Ebola in West Africa and in Africa.
We had an outbreak that started in Lagos, in a city with twenty-three million people in a country of two hundred and thirty million people. We deploy Sentinel, we work with public health authorities in Nigeria, and we showed that, you know, we could control that outbreak in a very spectacular way. Nigeria actually, you know, um, was able to contain the Ebola outbreak in ninety-three days with only twenty cases and a death. That was the first demonstration of the power and the firepower behind the Sentinel program. And then we went further, you know, in subsequent years to contain local outbreaks. I can give you the instance of a, a, a, a situation whereby.
In the southern part of Nigeria, for instance, within two weeks, one hundred and seventy-nine children died of a mysterious disease in court. A lot of the tests that they did locally proved negative. The Nigeria Center for Disease Control sent twenty samples in our lab, and in seventy-two hours, we established that it was yellow fever. But then this yellow fever that was killing children of school age was different from the ones that have been circulating in Nigeria for the past ninety-four years. And within ten days, that outbreak was contained, saving thousands of lives. The sentinel system proved that it worked, it proved that it was efficient, and it proved that it can contain this outbreak in a very spectacular way at each time when we deployed it.
So with this outbreak, was early detection a challenge? I mean, I've read, and I'd like your take on this, that the virus was possibly circulating for months before it was detected. Is that your assessment? And what happened?
Yes. I mean, the early detection was a challenge. You also remember that this outbreak started in a place called Ituri. Ituri was a place where there's almost or virtually no government. The place is governed by armed groups, you know, militias that are all controlling mineral resources. So I think when an outbreak starts in such a place where there's virtually no government presence, who reports what? And then who actually takes the necessary measures to actually put that under control? That's what happened. But then it's been circulating, but eventually, when it got to places where, you know, in Bunia, for instance, where there could be government presence, then you could see the governments of the country responding.
I mean, the unfortunate part for this outbreak, it started in a place where there's really, there were, there's really no governors, and then where the challenge for organizing, you know, a response to it was obvious.
You know, you've said, I've heard you say that stories of Africa are often spoken out of Africa by people that don't know Africa and don't understand what Africa is all about. What do you think the West is getting wrong about this current outbreak?
Well, I don't think it is about the West getting something wrong about the current outbreak. I think we are all getting it wrong. Both the West and Africa are actually getting it wrong about the current outbreak. What we got it wrong about the current outbreak is the fact that after SARS-CoV-2, after COVID-19, we went back to our, we went back to sleep on our laurels. We went back to do business as usual. We did not learn from COVID-19 or whether we learned, but we refused to apply the lessons learned from COVID-19, which was basically understanding that we need to continue to intentionally do disease surveillance. We need to cooperate and work together. We need to ensure that we, we share information.
We need to understand that we have to be very intentional in investing in research and development and accelerate processes related to research and development and accelerate processes related to vaccine, drugs and diagnostic development. We fail to understand that we need to put in place or strengthen the health system in places that are hard to reach like the DRC and then other places in Africa. We fail to understand that an outbreak anywhere in the world should be considered as an outbreak all over the world. Because an outbreak that start anywhere can reach the marketplaces within 48 hours. These are the failures that we all, you know, should assume. So it is not the responsibility of the West.
It is not the responsibility of, I mean, solely responsibility of the countries where this, that's happened. As a global and health community and as a people, you know, we have failed to learn from COVID-19 and we, and we might end up paying the heavy price for, for it.
Hmm. I mean, speaking of resting on our laurels, are there other pathogens like Bundy Boujo that public health officials should be paying attention to right now, even though they're not in emergency right now?
There are definitely probably many other pathogens that we don't even know about that may be even more dangerous than Bujing Bujio. And by yet, if we were out there doing surveillance, we should be able to discover them before they get to us. The reality is that we keep as human encroaching into nature as well. And because these are existing in nature, they have co-evolved with us over centuries. They are out there, but we don't really know much about. But then we should have a system, we should establish a system where we are sharing information, where we are working together, where when you share information, you are not discriminated against, you are not stigmatized against. So we need to actually just keep working together and continue to do the surveillance.
Because nature on its own is a big laboratory. And we have to rather to be very intentional, you know, about studying nature and then understanding what is circulating in nature and try to see how we can learn from those experiment to actually prepare better for potential disease outbreaks in the future. There are several studies and several simulations that have said that in the next 10 years, the world will experience another major pandemic with an increased number of deaths. But then the question is, are we preparing for it?
I have to take a quick break, but I'd like to ask you about your path and what drives you when we come back. Are you OK with that?
Sure.
I have heard you say that you look at pathogens circulating in Africa as an opportunity in disguise. Talk me through that idea.
Yeah, absolutely. I keep saying that God has blessed Africa not only with mineral resources. God has blessed Africa with a very powerful biodiversity. As part of the powerful biodiversity that Africa is endowed with are the pathogens. And these pathogens, we shouldn't just take these pathogens as just challenges. They are opportunities in disguise because they offer a unique opportunity for Africa to study them. And then from the, use the, use the data from the studies of those pathogens to create the next generation diagnostics, next generation vaccines, and next generation drugs. And this could be knowledge that Africa can share with the rest of the world. These are knowledge that, that are patentable, and these are also noted that can result into products
that Africa actually can not only use for its own self-sovereignty, not only for its own health security, but also to use to ensure global health security. That's where the opportunity is.
I mean, this seems key to your mission, right? Health sovereignty, self-determination, self-reliance.
Yeah.
How does the colonial legacy in Africa influence the way that you think about building science capacity in Africa?
Well, I do think that a colonial legacy in Africa has affected the continent very negatively. But again, I want to be very clear. I don't think that the fact that it has affected us negatively, it is a full and sole responsibility for those that colonize Africans. The question that we should be asking today is that how much have the African countries done themselves to free themselves from the colonial mind and the colonial mindset? How much have African countries done themselves to unite against the challenges that they do have? Africa will never evolve and Africa will not take off if we do not ensure our own sovereignty. That's what we need on the continent of Africa. We need to be very critical about it.
I think we talk a lot of talks in Africa, but we walk a little bit. I think we should stop talking, let's act more, and then let's show the rest of the world that we can actually do things.
Colleagues of yours have described you as a force of nature. Is that how you self identify?
I'm not sure that I self identify. That's the way people see me, but I don't think I self identify as a force of nature. Colleagues of mine find that, you know, I don't stop in front of any challenge. Let me put it this way, I don't take no for an answer. I have a very strong opinion and I believe strongly into certain things. And I believe that, once you believe in something, you've got to work hard to demonstrate that actually that belief is real and is correct. I mean, any obstacle that you actually come across, you use that obstacle as a stepping stone, actually to move higher. That's a bit of what characterized me, where each obstacle actually make me more determined. I think people that know me very well, they would tell you that the best way to slow
me is actually not to put any obstacle in front of me, because then I think it's easy. But then if you put obstacle, then actually you basically catalyze, you actually just make the best out of it.
Would you be willing to share a little bit of your personal story? Like how you grew up and how you found your way to molecular biology?
Oh yeah, I grew up in Cameroon, a very rural place in Cameroon, in a place where there was a lot of malaria, as a disease. I lost a lot of friends when we were young because of malaria. But then I was one of those, I'm one of those survivors. And I do believe that at the age of somewhere around eight, nine, I suffered one of the worst bouts of malaria that I've ever suffered. I was so sick I couldn't stand, I tell you. And my mom carried me in her back and took me to the hospital. It was run by Catholic nuns. And I met one of the nuns was a doctor and then she diagnosed me for malaria. And then I was given an injection, I was, I mean, which was quite an other time. But my mother, you know, carried me on her back and then taking me back home, you know,
got to a point and then she was tired. And she said, well, she need to rest her back. Of course, she put me down, I couldn't stand. And then I was leaning against a tree. And I remember sitting down and I asked my mom, why am I this ill? And she said, well, the doctor said you had malaria. And I told my mom, why is it that there's no cure? Or something that will prevent from people from having this disease? And my mom told me, I don't know. And I remember telling her immediately that, Mom, when I grow up, if this disease is still on, I will find a cure for it. That was what I told my mom at that age of eight, nine.
A few years later, I saw a poster of James Watson and Francis Crick. These were the two people that discovered the DNA molecule. And my biology teacher was telling us that these are two biochemists. They discovered the structure of the DNA. The DNA is the most powerful molecule that exists. That DNA is a molecule of life. I could connect at that point what the molecule of life is and the malaria parasite. I actually grew up chasing that malaria parasite. I decided to become a biochemist. I studied biochemistry and then when I I graduated with flying colors and look for a master's degree program where they were studying malaria parasite.
I actually went to school at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria because there was a master's degree program that was studying biochemistry applied to malaria. And eventually, after graduating my master's degree program, I ended up at Harvard, working on the malaria parasite, you know, trying to understand the genetic makeup of this parasite and try to see how you could use that genetic makeup to actually eliminate and kill that parasite. That is how I end up doing molecular biology and genomics, simply because I was chasing a foe called malaria.
It seems like you've only expanded your goal set. I mean, what would it take for you to feel like, okay, I've done it, I can I can rest?
I think we are building a strong base. We're building a critical mass of young Africans. We now built an institute, which is definitely one of them. It is the biggest genetic genomic platform in Africa. So I think it is part of the journey where now the young Africans who have a platform, where they can express their God-given talent. We've been able to train over three thousand young African scientists across fifty-three of the fifty-four African countries. The question is, is that number enough? The answer is no. We need to do way more than that. Now, we also need to ensure that we have resources that will enable young Africans to do research where they can actually leverage, you know, the platform that we've established
to develop the next generation vaccines, the next generation diagnostics, the next generation drugs. So I think once we've already have fully established this platform and then we see the young, young African taking over, we will eventually take our rest and take a bow.
Yeah, creating a system so that any kid with the dream of curing a disease can have the resources to do it.
Absolutely.
Dr. Christian Happy is a distinguished professor and director of the Institute of Genomics and Global Health at Redeemers University in Nigeria. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Thank you very much. It's a pleasure. It was a pleasure being on this program.
It was my pleasure. Thank you.
Shoshana Buxbaum produced this episode. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving us a review or a rating on your favorite podcast app of choice. Thanks for listening. I'm Flora Lichtman.
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